Love

[Lao Tzu]

Aight. As some of you know i can be quite cynical on issues others hold dear.

My question about love is, is it just a tool to ensure genetic survival? the strongest loves are the ones between a child and parent, and the ones between romantic partners. So this is it, the pinnacle of our culture is a half assed spinoff of obeying the selfish gene, which is arguably more evil than Hitler & Stalin combined?

What about love for god, where did that come from? what evolutionary purpose does that serve?

I can see how love for friends is about helping people you care about, but all that stuff about romantic love or love for children is, in the end, a manipulative farce if you look at it closely enough. I'm not saying it isn't real, just that it is about as divine as a prison guard giving an inmate a TV is he obeys the rules of the house.

I predict 0-3 replies to this topic, all from darktooth.

 

[HS Lifter]

I agree.

 

[vinylgroover]

Not really sure what you're getting at.

have you made that investment yet.

 

[HS Lifter]

Not really sure what you're getting at.

have you made that investment yet.

ti sto thialo lay auftus?

 

[Lao Tzu]

Vinal - Yes i've been in love with women, but i've never had kids (never will). I'm not denying that its real, just that the situational context, taken in its whole, is pretty shitty hence the comparison of it being similiar to a prison guard (totally amoral) giving a TV for obeying the rules.

I'm talking about the idea that love is something divine, i disagree with that.

 

[vinylgroover]

ti sto thialo lay auftus?

Pou na xero. Trelathike o malakas.

Tha pas exo yia gamisi to vrathi xadelfe.

 

[Lao Tzu]

i hate you guys

 

[saint808]

maybe you just haven't experienced a form of love that is complete. love is missing a person before they leave... love is all around you.

 

[Lao Tzu]

but that doesn't change why it exists.

 

[vinylgroover]

Vinal - Yes i've been in love with women, but i've never had kids (never will). I'm not denying that its real, just that the situational context, taken in its whole, is pretty shitty hence the comparison of it being similiar to a prison guard (totally amoral) giving a TV for obeying the rules.

I'm talking about the idea that love is something divine, i disagree with that.

I agree, it's not divine, although there will always be a bond that binds family. A good friend of mine has been treated like shit all her life from her delinquent father, yet she tells me she still loves him.

 

[saint808]

family generally loves you for what you are... a sister, a brother, a son... and if you are lucky they get to know you and like you for who you are...

 

[HS Lifter]

Pou na xero. Trelathike o malakas.

Tha pas exo yia gamisi to vrathi xadelfe.

LOL.

Oxi, tha katso spiti opopse.

 

[vinylgroover]

LOL.

Oxi, tha katso spiti opopse.

Ego tha pao exo na xekoliaso kamia to vrathi. Tha tis alaxo ta fota, LOL

 

[HS Lifter]

Ego tha pao exo na xekoliaso kamia to vrathi. Tha tis alaxo ta fota, LOL

Mi xehasis na tis gamisis to kolo.

 

[vinylgroover]

Mi xehasis na tis gamisis to kolo.

LOL, pote then xehnao. Tha tin xeskiso.

Me lene Andreas pou so yimiso to kolo kreas. Hahahaha

 

[HS Lifter]

LOL, pote then xehnao. Tha tin xeskiso.

Me lene Andreas pou so yimiso to kolo kreas. Hahahaha

Yiasou re Andrea!

 

[PHATchik]

Love is so many things. It can make you feel like you're walking on air. Then you get knocked down viciously. You mention different kinds of love. Love for God is definitely supposed to be above all others. Love for friends, what's the point of having them if you dont' love them? And romantic love, I won't even try to find the words for it right now.

 

[KnoXville]

I am falling in love with the nordstrom.

Aside from that, 'love' is just a very advanced reward / response mechanism in the brain, there is even a quite distinct reaction for it also. You have a companion, emotionally (physiological) and physically (pheromones / fluid sharing) and your brain busts out some reward action giving you the feeling most people describe as love. Drugs, chocolate, working out, seeing a attractive person all work off a similar system. Eventually the stimulus may not be as strong and hence you feel like love is lost and move on. The system has a shorter and more flexible duration in males also, so there attachment is marketable lower and they have a chromosomal need to keep playing the field (ensuring greater chances of offspring), and not be monotonous. So yes, love is a tool to ensure genetic survival (like 99% of everything else). Additionally love of god is also just perceived love, there is no reason for it biologically, but psychologically placebos do wonders for people, you can give a mental patient tic tacs and he may feel better and improve his condition even though nothing is there.

 

[Lao Tzu]

but don't you think love of god has biological origins? do other species love god?

perhaps it is a side effect of higher intellect, the fact that our brains can see beyond just survival and want to belive there is more to life (when there probably isn't). instead of fucking, eating & not being murdered, our brains are intelligent enough to see beyond and and try to create meaning in the form of religion.

Or perhaps love of god is a sociological tool. God usually defines right & wrong the same way the status quo & legal system does, so it could be another tool to keep people in line.

 

[saint808]

religion is the opiate of the masses... much like my posts on EF

 

[PHATchik]

but don't you think love of god has biological origins? do other species love god?

perhaps it is a side effect of higher intellect, the fact that our brains can see beyond just survival and want to belive there is more to life (when there probably isn't). instead of fucking, eating & not being murdered, our brains are intelligent enough to see beyond and and try to create meaning in the form of religion.

Or perhaps love of god is a sociological tool. God usually defines right & wrong the same way the status quo & legal system does, so it could be another tool to keep people in line.

I'm not sure that love of God could be considered biological since all human beings don't love a god. It's not something that is preordained by being a biological creature. It goes deeper than that.

 

[KnoXville]

Originally posted by nordstrom

but don't you think love of god has biological origins? do other species love god?

The mechanism has biological orgins, just like placebo effects and the other stimulie mentoned, but there is nothing in our biology that differetiate between the feeling of love from some kind of percieved god or a mars chocolait bar. Other animals mate and get the feeling of love based on there chemistry and the seasons etc .. then move on. We are obviouly the smarter animals overall, but they preceed us in many ways.

perhaps it is a side effect of higher intellect, the fact that our brains can see beyond just survival and want to belive there is more to life (when there probably isn't). instead of fucking, eating & not being murdered, our brains are intelligent enough to see beyond and and try to create meaning in the form of religion.

A side effect of evolution is we (organic life) continously get smarter, we are currently the flagship species of that marker. Religion was just a social tool to control the masses and implore some kind of meaning to life in the past before real science was yet to awaken itself. As far it has acted as a placeholder for various unexplained phenomena, that we can now for the most part understand completely.

They used to think we were the divine creatures, custom made and fitted by something special to live under a set of rules. we know better now. We evolved, are not the center of the world, earth is not the center of the solar system, the system is not even remotely near the center of the galaxy. Universally we are beyond insignificant compared to the rest of existing matter, we have genetically matured to use the feeling of love to survive ourselves, just like the first cell that existed to create us over billions of years later / its only meaning was to divide. Our job is to survive, and whatever else is just what we make of it.

 

[Puddles]

I don't agree that there's a bond of love that will always endure in a family. I do not love my mother, yet I love my father, as well as my husband, daughter, and my husband's family. I don't think love is just a means for us to procreate and survive...otherwise why would I love my best friend, who is a female and lives hundreds of miles away from me. I have also loved pets. I don't love God because I doubt his existense. There are very few people I can say that I actually love. I think people use the term love too loosely. You can care about a person and not actually love them. And there are different levels of love.