Nope, but I will. Thanks for the link.
That, of course, is one of those “functions” that all theories of evolution leave out. I was tempted in the previous comment to say that the hobby’s red trousers help ornithologists both in identification and appreciation, but it would go beyond my point. Yet what else is the entomologist’s appreciation of a trayful of near-identical mosquiotes, but a finely-honed sense of the beauty of minor variation?
But to answer the Lutheran, I think he sets up a false dichotomy between art and engineering. One of the things I like about music is that it’s a technical and mathematical as well as an aesthetic challenge, perspiration as well as inspiration. Not to mention the emotional, spiritual, communicative and so on.
So to play a spoken piece in 5/4 time is as much a process of calculation and physical training as (one hopes) an aesthetic experience for the hearer. And of course the George Lowden’s design for the guitar is art and technique too.
The beauty of a peregrine is, to a large extent, that it is such a superbly efficient killing machine. I certainly agree that impressing research funders is not on God’s agenda, but that was not what motivated Ettore Bugatti, R J Mitchell or Leo Fender, either.