Awe is Unique to Humans

For Bible-believing Christians, there are times when we become keenly aware of the blessings of God and a sense of awe overtakes us. We can respond in praise and thanksgiving for what we have, and for the majesty of creation.

If you study on it, we could even thank God for the laws of nature that allow us to appreciate things. (In my view, the universe has been damaged by the Fall of Man and the Flood, but God made it so that even after all that, we perceive amazing beauty.) Romans 8:20-21 tells us that all creation has been subjected to futility.

Unsplash / Joshua Earle

Psalmists poetically say that all creation praises God and sings. Such language is probably based on the coming release from futility after the return of Jesus at the consummation of all things at the end. Animals generally don't express a sense of awe. Our alleged evolutionary cousins just go about their ape business. No, awe is unique to humans and helps us relate to our Father.

Materialists may have a sense of awe and insignificance because they believe they are worthless specks in the universe, so they likely believe they have nobody to thank, nobody to praise. That is their foolish choice. Christians can praise God for creation and for being adopted as sons and daughters of Almighty God, among other things.

Christians believe that all humans, members of one human race, are created in God’s image. A sense of awe and wonder, therefore, is universal; it comes in the software. Corrupted with the virus of sin, awe is still God’s handle with which to draw people to himself. But what can secular materialists do with it? They can’t deny feelings of awe are real. Apes don’t appear to experience awe. How did it arise uniquely in the human psyche? Where did it come from? Can it be reduced to a selective advantage?

You can read the rest at "Secular Awe Falls Short." You may also be interested in "Psychology, Creation, and Awe."