A simple question with no simple answer.

Originally posted by Etherguide
I think I have the answer!

Here is my reasoning:
Love and hate come from one chakra (anahata, chest chakra).
Love and hate are polarities of a single emotion.
Hate overshadows love but love eventually outshines hate.
The nature of love is creation and the nature of hate is destruction.
So that means love is primary and hate is secondary.
Love is eternal and hate is temporary.

I think this allegory is appropriate here: fire (hate) boiling water and water (love) extinguishing fire.
Some day fire will be gone but water will always persist.

So here is my answer to your question:
Hate is stronger in the short term. Love is stronger in the long term.

[edit on 2-6-2010 by Etherguide]

I think that you may have earned yourself a cigar. I can wrap my head around this and not get a headache.

At least for now it rings true.

Originally posted by intrepid

Originally posted by NightSkyeB4Dawn
I have heard of people that have been tortured by love. I guess it would be a very slow process until you decided it wasn't worth the effort and just stopped.
That is another thing. People think that it is such an easy thing to let go of hate. So wouldn't it be just as easy to let go of a love that hurts?

Yup, just like hate. I had an experience a few years ago when I met my "soul mate". Never believed in that term before then. The problem? Married with 3 kids. She's was in my thoughts, dreams, damn. I finally just shut it off. I had to for the sake of my family.

Hate is harder to let go of. Love happens to you. Hate is a part of you. It's hard to leave a piece of you behind. Scary for some.

I can understand the part about love happening to you. I can understand falling in love with someone without intention. But how can hate be a part of you and love not be? I would think that love would adhere stronger and be more difficult to let go of because it is natural. While hate is not supposed to be natural but a distortion or a mutation of the natural emotion of love.

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


All human emotions are kinda fleeting but both love and hate can last for a while. Just look at the middle east and how many deep rooted hatreds there have been on going for hundreds if not thousands of years.

It is a tough one to answer.

I think humor is the greatest unifying factor of humankind, even when things are terrible if we can find humor in a situation it can really dissolve the tension.

Originally posted by NightSkyeB4Dawn
reply to post by shawnsgirl1997

 

Then you are saying they are the same?

Or that you can love and hate at the same time?

If you can love and hate at the same time, is it in equal measure?

You'll love to much which leads to hate i guess.

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


This is a very tough topic. I have learned that only YOU/ME can define ourselves. We only let in what we allow. Sometimes it's an emotion that can't come to pass. Like an ill timed feeling for another. You can't control that. All you can do is control you actions.

Hate can be the same. Maybe you were born into it. My father was a homophobe. I learned to be one. I learned differently later. That's just one example.

Hmm, maybe it's the human mind and not emotions at all. Our actions, not thoughts, define us?

Originally posted by LordBucket
reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn

 

Love or Hate; which is stronger?

Why don't you start by telling us what you think these things are?

Many of the statements in your post don't agree with my perceptions.

I think that they are primordial emotions.

I think that these emotions trigger responses that are often spontaneous and require little or no thought.

I think that they are often used as excuses for our actions; good or bad.

I think that the intensity of these emotions can be so strong that under certain circumstances they are very difficult to control and for some almost impossible.

I think that one man's love can be another man's hate.

I think that some love is supernaturally powerful; like the love of mother for her child.

I think some love is selfish and not necessarily a bad thing.

I think that hate can be just as strong and that you could not have love without it.

You can not love everything. Somethings should be despised, rejected and destroyed.

So would that make hate the pure emotion because it actions never change? It is always about destruction.

While the actions of love can be both creative and destructive.

Originally posted by Titen-Sxull
reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn

 

All human emotions are kinda fleeting but both love and hate can last for a while. Just look at the middle east and how many deep rooted hatreds there have been on going for hundreds if not thousands of years.

It is a tough one to answer.

I think humor is the greatest unifying factor of humankind, even when things are terrible if we can find humor in a situation it can really dissolve the tension.

I agree that laughter is the best medicine and it is universal.

Originally posted by intrepid
reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn

 

This is a very tough topic. I have learned that only YOU/ME can define ourselves. We only let in what we allow. Sometimes it's an emotion that can't come to pass. Like an ill timed feeling for another. You can't control that. All you can do is control you actions.

Hate can be the same. Maybe you were born into it. My father was a homophobe. I learned to be one. I learned differently later. That's just one example.

Hmm, maybe it's the human mind and not emotions at all. Our actions, not thoughts, define us?

Okay something else to add to my plate.

I guess in many ways we are taught what to love and what to hate. Life experiences of course can change this with time but the basics of the emotions like laughter are autonomic, visceral in nature.

Yet these emotions can be both voluntary and involuntary.

Just something more to add to the equation.


[edit on 2-6-2010 by NightSkyeB4Dawn]

[edit on 2-6-2010 by NightSkyeB4Dawn]

I will say love.

There have been battles fought over love that involved another. It's amazing what love will make you do. Wasn't the Trojan War in a sense over Helena?

Love is blind...

If the world was created in gods image by god, and we exist in a universe of forever, all at once, together and seperate then god is love, but god is also hate. God harms to heal and heals to harm.

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman


Yes, right on. Love asks, "Would you die for me?". Hate ultimately leads to, "I must kill!" But to give our lives is an expression of an ultimate, as Jesus said, there is nothing higher. But of killing, there is never enough. Not exactly a polarity, but the issue comes up because of the infinites at either end.

When you really loves someone, you would die a thousand deaths, for that one you love. And hate is insatiable. You can kill, and the one killed is not enough, and so on, ad infinitum. Love is certainly stronger, because even a murderer will try to keep their last breath, but the one who loves, can willingly let life go, if their beloved should be at stake.

If you have ever lost a child, you wouldn't even need to ask this question. Living is so hard after your child has been taken from you. It puts your entire life into perspective. No...living, breathing, isn't all, though most of us will kill to continue breathing, for even a few minutes. In fact, to survive seems like it can have no contenders, at the moment you struggle for breath! But, lose a child, or a loved one, and even this "absolute" can go out the window.

Love screams there can be no end, no matter what! Hate is endless misery for all, who fail to overcome.

JR

Originally posted by jar11
If the world was created in gods image by god, and we exist in a universe of forever, all at once, together and seperate then god is love, but god is also hate. God harms to heal and heals to harm.

You too see the duality that makes this questions such a conundrum.

Originally posted by JR MacBeth
reply to post by Iamonlyhuman

 

Yes, right on. Love asks, "Would you die for me?". Hate ultimately leads to, "I must kill!" But to give our lives is an expression of an ultimate, as Jesus said, there is nothing higher. But of killing, there is never enough. Not exactly a polarity, but the issue comes up because of the infinites at either end.

When you really loves someone, you would die a thousand deaths, for that one you love. And hate is insatiable. You can kill, and the one killed is not enough, and so on, ad infinitum. Love is certainly stronger, because even a murderer will try to keep their last breath, but the one who loves, can willingly let life go, if their beloved should be at stake.

If you have ever lost a child, you wouldn't even need to ask this question. Living is so hard after your child has been taken from you. It puts your entire life into perspective. No...living, breathing, isn't all, though most of us will kill to continue breathing, for even a few minutes. In fact, to survive seems like it can have no contenders, at the moment you struggle for breath! But, lose a child, or a loved one, and even this "absolute" can go out the window.

Love screams there can be no end, no matter what! Hate is endless misery for all, who fail to overcome.

JR

I think I understand what you are saying.

For love one will gladly give his life but is willing to live and suffer a thousand deaths to give purpose to the one that you love.

For hate one will also give his life but grudgingly because he wishes to live to destroy again until unable to destroy again.

Both can be determined and resolute.

Both as you have said under the right circumstances can cause such pain that not only your breath but the absolute can fly out the window.

I know that hate is powerful, and I know inherently that it is counter productive to the heart, mind and soul. Yet I also feel that love is not that far removed from hate and that one of the reasons we have so much trouble with obliterating hate and allowing love to flow free is that we have not accepted that hate shares a connection with love.

We can not separate them until we realize that they are attached.

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


The duality of EVERYTHING is so mind bogging sometimes. I see it in everything from flowers, to human faces.

I think maybe theres no right answer for any of lifes big questions. Everything maybe has a "we live to be alive and we're alive to live" kind of answer. Just a guess, but in a way it makes every answer infinite like the universe itself.

Hate and Love are the same strength.
Kinda like - Hate is the negative part of a sign wave, and Love is the positive part. Cant have one with out the other, as with everything else.

They are just different sides of the coin, is there a third side ?

reply to post by R3KR


exactly.

A third side would be interesting.

Perhaps we'll never know?

Originally posted by R3KR
Hate and Love are the same strength.
Kinda like - Hate is the negative part of a sign wave, and Love is the positive part. Cant have one with out the other, as with everything else.

They are just different sides of the coin, is there a third side ?

I like this. I suppose anything is possible including a third side and even a fourth depending on which dimension you are in.

Originally posted by jar11
reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn

 

The duality of EVERYTHING is so mind bogging sometimes. I see it in everything from flowers, to human faces.

I think maybe theres no right answer for any of lifes big questions. Everything maybe has a "we live to be alive and we're alive to live" kind of answer. Just a guess, but in a way it makes every answer infinite like the universe itself.

Up and down. Front and back. Light and dark. Happy and sad.

Combinations that can viewed from different perspectives but can they actually be separated?

The question is a little vague.
Because love and hate tackle much more things than death or killing.

Which one "motivates" action more?

I would say hate.
Even if there is no action there sure is the "thought" of it. - and it is the thought that counts.

But I'm going to go on the common ignorance of man, to say that hate motivates more action. Whether it is stronger or not is partly irrelevant, because were talking about the "cause" here aren't we?

The fear in man has motivated more hate in history than the love in man that has motivated more love.- I would say that is close to a fact.

And to refute something that I disagree with - "killing" no matter who it "saves" is not from love. Killing is always a question of intent in survival. Self defense is self defense, killing is a result, but if killing is the intention, it is no longer self-defense. The other killing for survival (food, plant/animal) is also much less about love. You hate the pain from hunger, which motivates a very strong action to kill to survive. However in the cycle of life of nature, killing for food constantly recycles itself, even through decomposition. So in reality it is almost always just. Human beings seem to be the only species that know nothing of moderation. Another killing is "punishment", which is the "save factor" that is supposedly out of the love for the greater good. If it is for someone you love and you want to "avenge" a loved one out of honor or respect - it is flat out from hate, not love. -
And for the tough one, if you kill someone that is suffering, because you love them, it is also out of the hate from the pain in causes you to witness them suffer - a kind of empathy for what you would want done to yourself as well. This can be argued greatly, because it is love, and it is also hate.

- Death is the only result that people seem to believe can prove to cease experience, whether that be to never cause harm or to be harmed, is usually the question.

A lot of people don't understand the phrase "love your enemies", but if they did, less people would die, plain and simple. If you think someone deserves to die, then you hate them or what they represent, plain and simple.

However, love in my opinion is stronger in a sense that it gives you more control than hate. Hate needs some form of fear, it "relies" on something. Love relies on nothing.

My father always taught me that you can only really feel hurt if it is from someone, or about something you love. Anger came out of being hurt, and hate came out of that anger when you couldn't use your reason to cope with it.
(It sounds like it's straight from Yoda, but that's how he taught me about the chain reaction toward being angry)

Hate is strong word for a reason. When you allow your hurt to take control of your rational mind and kill, it is for the same reason. So there can really be no true defining factor, because a loss of reason is generally the primary cause of murder.


It has always been a matter of the victor for the human understanding of it, because history is written by the victor.