Ants in awe

When an ant comes to the bottom of a particularly splendid range of rocky mounds, does it pause in awe? When an eagle soars on the upcurrent at a mountain ridge, does it wonder at the beauty of the geographic formation below it?

Yet when I see mountains, my heart stops and sings the creator's praise. How come my senses are tuned to awe and wonder at bulges on the earth's surface and at waves of the sea crashing in against rocks to spray salty must in the air? How come this sense developed? It does us no good in survival. The ant ignores the immensity of the rock garden: he searches food; the eagle cares not for the aesthetics of the mountain: all her eyesight is trained on food. Man alone stands and stares. It doesn't help survival: it focusses attention away from himself and his survival to the greatness of something else. Man alone stops in awe and praises.

Dawkins declares that belief in God takes away the awe and wonder due to the world. Forget arguing the point: Just tell us, Dawkins, whence that awe and wonder?

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ... they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. [Rom 1:18-22a & 25]

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways."
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
"They shall not enter my rest." [Ps 95]