The physical complexity of it is immense! The trees have been growing for years or even generations in that soil collecting water and minerals to reach up toward the sun and photosynthesize their food through the mechanisms in each individual cell that works together. The trees are in harmony with the rest of the ecosystem as leaves provide food and homes for animals either on the branches or after they fall. If not, they decay and fertilize the soil for the multitude of life in this one small patch of forest. It's incredible, and that is just the physical!
Now, think about the cerebral part of this. I look upon this, an amazing physical phenomena in itself that I will not go into, and I consider it beautiful. Why? The bouncing photons enter my eye, either from the scene itself for from the computer screen, and the electrical impulses fire from the optic nerve up into my brain to be translated. I comprehend the array of reds and golds or the leaves on the trees. I see the brightness of the sun. If I am there, my other senses become involved as I hear the crunching of the leaves under my feet and feel the warmth of the sun against brisk autumn air. I even hear the trickle of the stream that my eyes cannot see, and all of these things cause a calm through me as my brain releases chemicals, likely dopamine and/or serotonin,yet I cannot cause the release of these chemicals myself without outside stimuli for the most part.
Now, if that was not enough, consider the metaphysical. Why did I choose that particular place to go? Is it a product of biochemistry or something more? I could have chosen a meadow in the Spring or a wheat field under the summer sun or a Caribean beach. Why an autumn forest? Did I choose it, or is free will an illusion, and it was instinct or pre-association that caused it?
The complexity of everything in this causes me to believe that I did choose it, and I have reason behind that. You see, evolution shows us that as we have evolved from the less complex to the more complex, we are still governed by the same set of rules in order to function. The insect does not make decisions, it acts on instinct. The same is true for the reptile, and as the brain becomes more complex, the instincts do as well. Yet, instinct is not what caused that. There is a beauty that goes beyond evolutionary biology, and if you believe that evolution is how we came to this point in our existence, you have to believe that free will is an illusion. I don't. I see our free will enacted on a daily basis, and because I see that I believe that the beauty of the autumn forest is not only good from my brain but good for my soul. My belief in free will also shows me that there is something beyond the physical and cerebral, that there must be a creator, an artist, who crafted this beautiful landscape, and it does my soul good to embrace that truth.
