It's hard enough

I recently brought up my “things I like post” in conversation and have been thinking more about that lately, and of course science too. Going along with that I've been thinking about the idea of beauty in the world and in my life.
Much of what we do as humans (or for any other organism) is based on reproducing to create further generations. To quote the quotable Richard Dawkins “That is why we love life, love sex and love children.” True enough. There are many things that I enjoy in life that are a result of natural selection and evolution in general. For instance, I like to watch the flickers behind my house looking for food in the grass then see them fly away with their striped wing patterns and chest markings. I know that their colorization has an adaptive reason, but I do not enjoy it less because of that. I just like to watch flickers, or any other bird mostly because they're fun to watch and they have markings that are amazing either pecking around a tree or in flight. There is no reason why one should be tainted by the other. They can both be appreciated for their beauty and complexity. The other example is people. I feel that a lot of people dislike science because they feel it is sterile and heartless. Sometimes, but if you are able to appreciate how beautiful a cell or a process is then it is a joyous thing to observe. I'm an archaeologist (of sorts, I know) and I have seen a lot of beautiful pieces of pottery, architecture, and stone work. A lot of the time artifacts or sites are simply turned into data. That helps us quantify things and hopefully help us learn more. At the same time I often look at a piece of pottery with a sense of awe not only because of its age or location but also because of its beauty and the fact that I know another person made it with their own hands. It's also funny to think about aesthetics in the archaeological record. We always look at site location in terms of utilitarianism, though I have often looked at a site and though “yea, I'd build here, it's got a great view.”
The Dawkins quote really sums up what I'm try to pin down. Humans have appreciated beauty for a long time. I tend to think of more simple things in nature or human emotions. It makes sense that things like sex and sexual attraction exist. If we had no motivation to have sex and reproduce then our species would be out the door quick. That said one would be hard up to find a scientist who rejects sex and intimate relationships because they're simply evolutionary tactics to get us to make offspring. Sure that's why, but at the same time having relationships and sex are very enjoyable despite their intention (they should be anyway). People coming together and creating something positive, even if it based on evolution, isn't a bad thing. Particularly for those people. That goes for the feelings parents have for children and vise versa. It makes sense from a scientific side but also enriches our lives because humans have created this crazy thing we call culture. We've essentially created the idea of feelings and let them affect how we interact and deal with the world and one another.
I care why something is beautiful on the basis of fitness or adaptation but also care that something is beautiful when it makes me feel good to observe or be a part of it. There is no reason to let one or the other dominate all the time and restrict how one sees the world. It's easy to get lost in either one. I'll still marvel at mitochondria and feel so humbled when standing under a massive 400 year old Ponderosa pine with my arms stretched as wide as I can around it. Sometimes some things make one feel totally irrational and silly but are totally worth it.