Stand to Reason Weekly Podcast

Episode: "Beauty Is Real"

Host: Megan Allman
Date: October 22, 2025

Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Megan Allman steps into the host's chair for the first time and explores the concept of beauty—its nature, its objective reality, and its role in Christian apologetics. Drawing from philosophy, literature, and personal experience, Megan delves into why beauty matters for Christians and how it points beyond ourselves toward God. The episode is divided between Megan's extended reflection on beauty and a listener Q&A, touching on the importance of encouraging difficult questions in church settings and the nature of God's interaction with Moses in the Old Testament.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Megan’s Introduction and Context (00:30–04:00)

• Megan shares her excitement at hosting, describes the Seattle Reality Apologetics conference, and mentions upcoming events.
• She explains her entry into apologetics and her fascination with the subject of beauty.
• Megan’s takeaway: “The thing that drew me into Christian apologetics and more than anything else was the discovery that the truth was very beautiful.” (03:40)

2. The Nature of Beauty and Its Mystery (04:05–13:00)

• Mystery vs. Contradiction:
  • Beauty is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to participate in (Peter Kreeft, Gabrielle Marcel).
  • Mystery means "we don't have all the information yet," not that it's a contradiction.
• “If beauty is truly objective, that means that we will study of him, that we will behold his beauty forever.” (06:30)
• Beauty and Humanity:
  • Our own subjectivity makes beauty an inexhaustible topic.
• Objective Beauty:
  • Pushes back on the modern notion that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
  • Paraphrases C.S. Lewis’s critique in The Abolition of Man (10:00):
    • “They were no longer teaching grammar. They were teaching a worldview, and a dangerous one at that.”

3. Classical & Christian Definitions of Beauty (13:01–24:00)

• C.S. Lewis & Objectivity:
  • Beauty as a real attribute, not just a feeling.
• Plato and the Greeks:
  • Even pre-Christian philosophers believed beauty had objective, transcendent origin.
• Thomas Aquinas’s Perspective:
  • Beauty is “that which, when being seen, pleases.”
  • Beauty has characteristics: unity of form, proportion/harmony, and radiance (“a divine spark”).
  • “Harmony…means that every part brings out the best in all of the other parts.” (19:20)
• Psychological Effects of Beauty:
  • Megan notes, “Beauty is more enticing even than truth and goodness, and that’s why we have temptation.” (22:00)
  • Beauty disarms, captivates, and moves us in ways we sometimes don’t understand.
• Examples of Beauty’s Impact:
  • People build homes in impractical, risky places simply for the beauty (mountains, beaches).

4. Beauty’s Paradox: Pleasure and Pain (24:01–29:30)

• Healing and Homesickness:
  • Beauty can be both deeply pleasurable and surprisingly painful.
  • Peter Kreeft: “The best compliment you can give to an artist is ‘you broke my heart.’” (25:50)
  • C.S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory, sees beauty as inducing a longing for another world—a homesickness.
• “We want more than just to look at it. We want to bathe in it. We want to enter into it. And it’s like we can’t quite get in.” (Lewis, paraphrased, 27:00)

5. Beauty in Creation and Every Day (29:31–33:00)

• Nature is a testament to God’s artistry—abundance, variety, delight.
• Jaron Bars (Echoes of Eden): God as the supreme artist; the world as both “form and content.”
• Chesterton’s insight: God created not just one daisy, but fields of daisies (“do it again”), suggesting an exuberant, childlike delight in creation.
• Even the most breathtaking places are marred by the Fall, hinting at far greater beauty yet to come:
  • “There is more. It will only get better with heavenly realities as God makes all things new…” (32:30)

6. Delighting in Beauty Requires Inefficiency (33:01–33:55)

• Megan stresses that to truly savor beauty, we must resist our culture’s emphasis on productivity and efficiency.
• Example: Watching birds on the lake with her son—being intentionally “inefficient” to notice and enjoy.
• “Beauty makes demands on us in terms of our time as well. It demands a kind of inefficiency in our lives that is hard to attain in our very busy, very noisy world.” (32:50–33:40)

Call-In Q&A

Caller 1: Gretchen – Should We Raise Difficult Questions in Church? (33:54–40:49)

Key question: Is it potentially dangerous to raise hard questions with teens in church if they’re not openly asking them, for fear of “causing deconstruction?”

Megan’s Response: (35:10–40:44)

• The church should be a safe place for hard questions.
• The world is already raising questions—better that the church addresses them honestly and equips students to think well.
  • “My hope is that the church would be a safe place for those questions to be brought to them…If the questions are going to be brought to them by the world…they are being brought to them.” (35:39)
• Encourage environments for open wrestling with doubts; prompt questions gently, use discussion to gauge depth.
• Reference: Summit’s Dr. Jeff Myers: students often arrive not with “unanswered questions” but with “unquestioned answers.”
• Practical tip: Use good questions to guide thinking (“tactics”) rather than just lecturing.
• Address church equipment: Some churches are more prepared than others; leadership that’s unafraid of questions models healthy inquiry.
  • “Seeing a leader who isn’t afraid of the questions, even if they don’t know the answer, benefits those students to go, ‘Oh, okay…It’s not a sin.’” (39:13)

Caller 2: Rich – Moses, God’s Warning, and Divine Sovereignty (41:01–46:22)

Key question: In the Old Testament, if Moses hadn’t intervened when God threatened to destroy Israel, would God have followed through?

Megan’s Response: (42:03–46:19)

• Moses can’t thwart God’s sovereign plan; God works through relationship, not caprice.
• The passages are opportunities to highlight God’s attributes: justice and mercy.
• No matter how hard the question, justice will be served—either by the perpetrator or by Christ.
• “God extended mercy…this was an occasion for God to display mercy instead of perfect justice in that moment. And good thing they didn’t get what they deserved, nor us.” (44:15)
• God’s foreknowledge and real-time relationship coexist in mystery; Moses’s intervention is part of God’s plan.

Reflections on the Christian Life & Beauty (46:23–57:47)

• The Crucifixion as the Apex of Ugly-turned-Beautiful:
  • The cross, meant for humiliation, became the source of life, justice, and mercy.
  • The challenge for believers is to point, like John the Baptist (“the giant index finger” in Matthias Grünewald’s painting), to Christ.
• Cultivating Beauty in Everyday Life:
  • All are image-bearers and creators, not just “artists.”
  • Everyday acts—making a meal, organizing a room, repairing a bike, writing—can cultivate beauty.
  • “Our acts of everyday faithfulness do more and mean more than we commonly think that they do in our disenchanted world.” (50:39)
• Feasting as an Act of Defiance:
  • Kelly Keller’s insight via The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:
    • Simple feasts in Narnia were acts of defiance against evil—a declaration that “always winter, never Christmas” was ending.
  • “Every time you do that (cultivate beauty) you are letting the enemy know that his reign has come to an end in this kingdom that is already here and coming.” (57:00)
• Call to Action:
  • Look for small, tangible ways to create and celebrate beauty as a declaration of hope and resistance.
  • Megan closes:
    • “Go out there and give 'em heaven.” (57:40)

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “The thing that drew me into Christian apologetics…was the discovery that the truth was very beautiful.” (03:40) — Megan Allman
• “Beauty is not a problem that can be solved, but a mystery that can only be participated in.” (06:00) — Quoting Peter Kreeft
• “Beauty is more enticing even than truth and goodness…and that’s why we have temptation.” (22:00) — Megan Allman
• “We want more than just to look at it. We want to bathe in it. We want to enter into it. And it’s like we can’t quite get in.” (27:00) — Paraphrasing C.S. Lewis
• “God is working here through relationship with Moses as he works through relationship with us.” (46:03) — Megan Allman
• “Our acts of everyday faithfulness…declare war on evil, on the dark, in our day to day lives.” (50:54) — Megan Allman
• “Every time you do that you are letting the enemy know that his reign has come to an end…” (57:00) — Megan Allman

Episode Flow & Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------------|----------------| | Intro, Seattle recap, Reality conference info | 00:30–04:00 | | Beauty as both subject and mystery | 04:05–13:00 | | Beauty’s objectivity: Lewis, Plato, Aquinas | 13:01–24:00 | | Beauty’s effects and paradox | 24:01–29:30 | | Beauty in creation and inefficiency | 29:31–33:55 | | Q&A: Gretchen (church, questions & deconstruction) | 33:54–40:49 | | Q&A: Rich (Moses and God’s sovereignty) | 41:01–46:22 | | Final reflections: cultivating beauty, feasting as resistance | 46:23–57:47 |

Summary Takeaways

• Beauty is real, objective, and inherent to God’s character and creation; it’s more than subjective preference.
• Beauty points us to the divine, instilling longing and wonder, and invites participation, not just analysis.
• Christians should create environments—at home and in church—where hard questions are welcomed as part of discipleship.
• Everyday faithfulness and intentional acts of beauty, even (and especially) when inefficient, are both apologetic and a kind of spiritual resistance against brokenness and evil.
• The call is to “give 'em heaven” by displaying the beauty, hope, and goodness of God in our lives and relationships.

For listeners and non-listeners alike, this episode provides both an apologetic for the objective reality of beauty and practical encouragement to notice, savor, and cultivate beauty as part of a Christian life rooted in wonder and hope.