There are many things in this world that could just as easily be attributed to coincidence or evolution as to G-d, so I have been lying awake tonight trying to think of things or circumstances in this world that might still be rationalized, but not quite as easily: things that might just be "unnecessary gifts from G-d."
After you read my list, I would appreciate two things from you: 1) Add your own. 2) Describe any religious writings/teachings that would point to G-d's purposeful inclusion of these things in our lives.

MUSIC

Sure, evolution would favor those with vocal chords, but we don't need the kind of vocal chords that can make music to survive. Animals can't sing. Did G-d think they wouldn't appreciate it, or is it just coincidence that the superior human vocal chords can also produce beautiful sounds? Is it coincidence that we can hear so many different tones, and that we are able to be creative with them? That so many things in our world can be formed into instruments of beautiful music? Were our first songs prayers to G-d?

GENDERS

Wouldn't it actually have been easier for hermaphroditic beings to survive and multiply? No worrying about finding another in order to procreate. Or did G-d know we would be happier with company, so made it practically necessary for us to have and hold another?

PETS

On a smaller scale than the above, but along the same lines of thinking, might animals such as cats and dogs have been created just to keep us company and give us pleasure? Or, was it totally humans who found wild animals and selectively bred them into tame creatures? OR, did G-d know we would do this?


RAW MATERIALS

We could have survived as a species forever at the level of cavemen. We needed nothing more than they had discovered at the time. Yet, so many things either happened to be on this Earth or were purposefully placed here to make our lives better. Just a few examples would be: trees (to be formed into paper, boats, etc.); cotton and wool to make clothing, blankets, etc. (making hunting unnecessary for that purpose); metal (to form into knives, machines, etc.); cows (to make nursing forever unnecessary!); the nature of grapes to turn to wine (which is unnecessary for survival but which might have been designed that way to give us pleasure); all the ingredients necessary to make medicines. ...It's as if G-d set us down as infants in a room full of toys just above our congnitive level to have the joy of watching us discover them, and for us to have the joy of them.

"Mussar Room" is defined as the place to get your heart to believe what your mind already knows. What I'm aiming for in this post is to get the MIND to believe what the heart WANTS.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Gila,

Paulette, this is a great thread! Here are a few of my own thoughts:

COLOURS:
The world would work just as well, if it were all one colour, but G-d put beautiful colours into it, the bright blue of the sky on a sunny day, the vibrant green of trees against the sky. The rich brown of the soil...

FRUITS AND VEGETABLE
Similar to above, G-d could have created a vitamin supplement for us to get all our nutrients. But instead He created beautiful fruits and vegetables in different colours, shapes and textures with delicous taste all for us to enjoy.

These are just two that strike me right now. I would love to see other people's thoughts on this!

One thing, that to me, points to G-d, is the birth and development of a baby. It is completely miraculous. For 9 months it is nurtured in the perfect envronment for it, growing at a phenomenal rate and then at birth, so much can go wrong but G-d allows this perfect little baby to be born and to function in a world that is totally the opposite of the womb. And the baby gets used to it so quickly. And within a few short months, the tiny, helpless infant is gone and a developing, growing, understanding baby is discovering the world around him. Whenever I think about the miracle of it all I am bowled over. How great and wondrous are the deeds of Hashem!

Very Nice but i dont agree wit u on the Genders and Music part -in the Morning Prayer we mention to make music to Hashem and the Levittesin the times of the Beis Hamikdash made music with musical instruments through songs of praise so music is basically another form of prasing Hashem's name.
And Genders - the Love between a man and a wife is basically incomparable to anything else

Menachem, I think that the point Paulette is making is that the gifts she mentioned above, are gifts that we do not 'need' in order to survive, but that G-d has given us and that make life so much richer, and more enjoyable.

So music and genders are beautiful things that enrich our lives so much, but from a purely survival aspect, we would survive without them.

Gila, you interpreted my thread exactly. And I do agree with your two additions. Color is something I didn't think of, but what you wrote is so true. And the thing about birth that amazes me most is the way the baby's heart, at the moment the umbilical cord is cut, automatically changes how it works. That is a mighty complicated thing to have happened by evolution if evolution was not planned by a Creator.

I am definitely looking forward to hearing other ideas as well.

Oops i misunderstood.

That's okay, Menachem! I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas once you think about it this way.

Paulette, your post gets me thinking, maybe nature is beyond making sense, maybe it is that thing which could not be otherwise if your going to have existence (life in particular) because it is that profound, hence we have what we have?

I'm afraid that I must disagree with this post.

Music:

Have you ever heard the phrase "to sing like a nightingale?" Animals certainly do sing, and the ability to create different pitches and tones gives a creature the ability to communicate emotions such as fear or anger; it just so happens that humans have developed this ability beyond that of any other species.

Genders:

As you may know, many species do reproduce without the need to interact, I believe snails are an example. Also, most microscopic organisms reproduce with asexual means. The fact that we happen to have evolved to need to have intercourse to reproduce could just be a fluke of evolution. Perhaps the pleasure gained from a sexual experience is what ensured the survival of any species that engages in the same reproductive method as us.

Pets:

Pets are a very recent invention. Humans have certainly been using animals to assist them in hunting in the past, but that doesn't mean to say that they were put there for that purpose; to suggest so would be to espouse an exceedingly anthropocentric view of the world. Dogs could have evolved independently, and then humans took advantage of their characteristics.

Raw materials:

What would there be if there were no trees, metals, rocks, plants and other "raw materials." Again, these things exist in their own right, but we as scient beings found uses for them to suit our wants, if not our needs.

Colour:

Colour is essential to survival. An example would be poisonous frogs and snakes that are red or orange to advertise the fact that they are dangerous. The sky is blue because the light is refracted by the ozone layer (or something); nothing supernatural there. If everything were one colour, how would we distinguish one thing from another. Colour is more useful than has been suggested here.

Fruits and vegetable:

Once again, these fruits and vegetables are living things in there own right. They have bright colours (see above) to attract insects that assist their reproductive process (see above), and don't foget that we aren't the only ones who eat them. Also, how would these vitamin supplements exist? Would they drop from the sky? Or would they grow on trees?

Love to see any more thoughts.

Leiser

quote:

Originally posted by Leiser:
Genders:
The fact that we happen to have evolved to need to have intercourse to reproduce could just be a fluke of evolution.
Leiser

What evolution? Hashem created us this way, male and female.

Genesis Chapter 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And the man said: 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Rabbi,

I was careful to say "could be," but even if evolution did not enter into it, God could still have given us the pleasure of intercourse as an incentive, for want of a better word, to procreate.

Leiser

What Leiser is saying is actually a Gemarah in Yoma 69b and Sanhedrin 64a. That the �Yetzer Horah� for �Arayos� was given over to Chazal and they held it for a few days to see what happens and they couldn�t find any fresh eggs for the sick. So they said they couldn�t kill it or else the whole world will end.

Isn't there a midrash that Genesis ch. 1 describes that G-d created Adam as an androgenous (hermaphroditic) being and then in Genesis ch. 2 put Adam to sleep and took his rib / side and made a woman out of it ?

As far as evolution, it is my feeling that evolution is one of the means that Hashem is using to ensure that our world does not stagnate.

Let us keep in mind that we were put to a job of taking care of the Garden; the Garden was not put there to keep us provided for and entertained.

Leiser, regarding nightingale and other songbirds: they do not sing unless it is their mating period and they are lonely. We sing whenever we feel like it, but it is not related to any part of the year or solitude. singing at the Temple was the most available form of expressing our higher inner selves and our devotion ot Hashem, which is why the Levites did it as the intermediaries between the Kohanim and the rest of Israel: Kol Nidrei is the best example of such experience.

I think all these things are gifts from
HaSh-m.

If the medrash about Adam is correct, then all the more supports what Paulette is saying, and reminds me of the many Psalms written by and for David Melech about HaSh-m and His wonders. It is a beautiful thread. Thanks, Paulette.