Ever notice how music moves your emotions and your soul? Rock and roll. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. A great hymn. Some type of music (or more than one) can literally take ahold and move you. Or at the very least provide especial enjoyment.
Ever wonder why that is?
From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes no sense whatsoever that music makes us feel emotions. Even people committed to finding an evolutionary explanation for everything are mystified by music’s ability to evoke. Here’s Charles Darwin: “Man’s faculties for enjoying and producing music must be ranked among the most mysterious with which he is endowed.”
Endowed is an interesting, if not Freudian, choice of word. The Bible includes the origin of music among the basic stages in the development of civilization, suggesting that music is primeval and foundational. Here’s God on music: “And his brother’s name was Jubal, the first musician; the inventor of the harp and flute.” (Genesis 4:21)
Music is an argument (an argument, not a proof) for God’s existence. It has absolutely no intrinsic value other than joy. That it evolved out of the primordial soup is considerably less persuasive than it being an endowment from a benevolent God. Particularly when considered with all the other circumstantial evidence.
Made in His image. From the #imjustsaying series.