I'm a bit puzzled

[Moosader]

On another forum I go to, there was a poll on peoples' beliefs, and I brought up what people's upbringings were, though that kind of got derailed.  Anyways, one of the guys said this...

I'm most definitely theist now, with views biased towards Christianity partially because that's been my largest exposure; however, I do have some different views on certain topics and I cannot pretend that my previous agnostic/atheistic beliefs don't shape the way I view religion. ;P

I personally believe strongly in love and cannot see how one can place so much importance in non-materialistic abstract emotionality as I do and not believe/hope there is some kind of higher purpose to life.

And I'm a bit puzzled.  I'm not totally sure what my question is per se, as I'm horrible with words. XD  I think what I'm wanting to ask here is- What is this with the love stuff?  How is it logical to think that as an Atheist, I cannot believe in Love, an abstract emotion, if I do not believe in a higher power.

Does anyone have a response to this? XD  I'm not sure how to respond to him.  Love is something I feel.  It seems like everyone else feels it, too.  I'm pretty sure everyone else in the world isn't lying about this emotion.  How is this even related to god?

What is your impressions?

[myleviathan]

Love is not related to god. Love is a human emotion. It is completely independent of one's belief about God. No theist has a monopoly on love. A lot of people relate love and theism, because theism is purely emotional. But don't let anybody fool you into believing that love is somehow related to god. If it were, you would think only those with the 'true' god could truly love. But this is rediculous. People are capable of loving other no matter their views. People love others the world over, including atheists. Love extends beyond theism.

[Moosader]

I totally agree.  I just find it totally odd that he either thinks that god exists and proof is that we feel love.  I've never actually heard that before, though I've always heard them ("them" being a different group- baptists from my childhood) talking about how non-christians don't have morals. >_>

[Tom62]

Love is not related to a god. Many theists believe that their god = love, but that cannot be true because the gods of their "holy" books are very nasty, sneaky, revengeful creatures. This might explain why the more people believe in [a] god the more hateful they get towards people who don't think or do the same things as they do. The bible says for example "Love thy neighbor", but when you read a little bit further you'll quickly find out that this means "Love thy Jewish neighbor and condemn everyone else". The idea that love comes from a god is clearly wrong, since love is a natural emotion (I don't say human emotion, because I believe that animals are also capable of loving each other). There is nothing supernatural about love, nor do theists hold the monopoly on love.

[Kyuuketsuki]

Love, like conciousness, is frequently held up as one of those things science can't explain completely ignoring the fact that there are 300 plus (when I last counted which was a few years back) serious journals on brain/mental research and that, given the number of presumed workers in the filed to support that many apparently serious journals, it is somehow naive to suggest we know nothing. Of course we don't know everything yet but we're working on it (by we I mean those workers).

To my mind that is all this guy is doing by claiming love is abstract ... in essence all he is saying is he can't understand it, it's little more than an admission of ignorance on his part.

Kyu

[myleviathan]

To my mind that is all this guy is doing by claiming love is abstract ... in essence all he is saying is he can't understand it, it's little more than an admission of ignorance on his part.

I totally agree. And when people don't fully understand something as complex as love they are quick to attribute it to the divine. Many people prefer that love not be well understood because to them it's much more appealing if its components remain intact. It takes away the romance if you can explain love scientifically, you know? It's the same when theists attribute creation to the divine. They claim the sunset is proof that God exists because it's so beautiful. But there are a lot of scientific components to beauty and how our brain interprets sensory information and causes aesthetic appreciation. It's good to be able to enjoy love, or sunsets, or whatever. But it's also lazy and, like Kyu mentioned, ignorant to just attribute them to a deity and leave it at that.

[Whitney]

I personally believe strongly in love and cannot see how one can place so much importance in non-materialistic abstract emotionality as I do and not believe/hope there is some kind of higher purpose to life.

I think "hope" is a clue to what this person is trying to say.  When you love someone you don't want to ever go without them.  I think this person is equating the existance of a higher power with eternal life (neither depends on the other, but that's a separate topic).  So, this person probably thinks that those who do not at least hold out hope for eternal life are actually not loving to the fullest extent of their capability.

IMO, love is not something to be believed in...it's a proven emotion.  We can run tests on people in love and note the differences between them and those who are not in love.  Squid (another HAF member) actually wrote a nice article about love but it got lost when a hacker attacked the site and unfortunately I didn't save a copy on my hard drive.  Maybe he will be able to post it for us again.