The Purpose of the Order of the World

The harmony of nature is one of the things that strongly suggests to the mind that there is a providential ordering of all of it. That's quite important for us to stop and think about because Aquinas thinks it's basically normal for people to ponder the world of nature. So much so that when we, in a minute, I'm going to say something like he thinks that's like the purpose of the order of the world is to lead persons to contemplate God this way. We don't think of ourselves primarily as contemplatives of nature but that's sort of how Aquinas thinks of human beings.