Creativity |
A composer in composing a symphony to perform before an audience invites them: "Here's my creation; enjoy it!"
While the composer is composing, the notes and measures creatively appear in the composer's mind. But where do these notes and measures come from?
What about that A-flat chord at that spot, at measure 87: did the composer willfully choose to put it there knowing it would stir the emotions? Or did God plant the idea in the composer's mind? Where did the idea to use A-flat come from; from out there somewhere in the creative realm?
In composing a symphony, the composer taps into the creative powers from somewhere who-knows-where beyond the conscious mind, perhaps into the mind of God, the creator of everything good and beautiful.
Is God, therefore, really the composer of all symphonies, the creator of all works of art?
Perhaps the universe is like this too; a symphony created by God. Our role as conscious participants in the universe is to enjoy it as we would a symphony, as God invites us: "Here's my creation; enjoy it!"
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In creating a work of art, it seems there is a living "energy" or "force" or "essence" that comes to the artist or musician or writer seemingly from outside of them. This is their creativity: something from outside them.
Even the ideas and stories empowering culture; even these are creative like art is; they arise in the originators' minds seemingly at random, much as the contents of a symphony creatively appear in the mind of the composer.
And what about God? In creating human souls, does God "read" the DNA of the zygote at the instant of conception and create a soul having corresponding attributes? If so, God is not creating me (like a symphony is created by the composer), but rather, merely building me from a blueprint already in existence. But of course, God would have first chosen which DNA were to become part of the zygote. Perhaps he chooses these like a composer composing a symphony?
The creative compositions of the artist are for us to enjoy; for us to experience. Nobody claims these to be true in the same way scientific knowledge is true.