How do agnostics explain the beauty and harmony of nature?
I do not understand where this “beauty” and “harmony” are supposed to be found.
Through the animal kingdom, animals ruthlessly prey upon each other. Most of them are either cruelly killed by other animals or slowly die of hunger. For my part, I am unable to see any great beauty or harmony in the tapeworm. Let it not be said that this creature is sent as a punishment for our sins, for it is more prevalent among animals than among humans. I suppose the questioner is thinking of such things as the beauty of the starry heavens. But one should remember that stars every now and again explode and reduce everything in their neighborhood to a vague mist. Beauty, in any case, is subjective and exists only in the eye of the beholder.
From “What is an Agnostic?” by Bertrand Russell, being the first text/essay I have chosen to read for my year of religion texts.



















