Why is their beauty so appealing to humans? If this beauty has been evolved then for which purpose?
What’s the benefit of so much beauty in nature like ocean waves, sunset, flowers, etc? Is this the objectivity or universality of beauty that everyone can find the stars in the sky and sunset beautiful?
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It’s true, as others have pointed out, that flowers have evolved to be bright and colorful to attract animals that will spread their pollen—mostly insects, but mammals can carry pollen in their hair and clothes too.
But as for nature as a whole, I think you may have some *anthropocentric* bias. The ocean, the sunset, the waves, and the stars have not adapted so that humans find them beautiful. They have not adapted to humans or any other animal at all—they aren’t even alive or subject to evolution by natural selection.
*You*—or rather the human species—have adapted. Our species evolved in an environment with oceans and sunsets and waves and stars. Importantly, we evolved brains that *love* finding and recognizing patterns and actively reward us with positive emotions when we notice them.
All of the phenomena you mentioned are some combination of bright, noticeable, and regular. On top of that, if you have time to notice the sunset or watch the ocean or stars, it probably means you’re *not* actively fighting for your life or running from a threat. So humans might come to associate them with peaceful and positive emotions and—very importantly—build that association over generations through storytelling and art.
An extraterrestrial with a completely alien way of interpreting reality may find no beauty in any of these things we think of as natural. They have no inherent aesthetic qualities because that process happens in human minds.
That doesn’t mean it’s not real—just that it’s a product of human minds
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