Love does not exist

"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."

Matt Groening, "Life in Hell"
US cartoonist & satirist (1954 - )

www.quotationspage.com...

"Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke."

Lynda Barry

www.quotationspage.com...

"Love is patient, love is kind,
love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes in all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."
— St. Paul

www.goodreads.com...

Love exists, but it is not to be confused with hormonal surges, greed, infatuation, or a million other egocentric sentiments we all call love.

There are a lot of analogies for love, but love cannot be described in words or measured in emotional responses.

The proof of love is in our behavior toward one another and the purity of its motivations.







[edit on 2010/6/23 by GradyPhilpott]

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


Amen.

You understand what love means is.

I needed to say that. Just because...

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Thank you.

You are very kind.

reply to post by empireofpain


Yeah the whole non-monogomy thing is fun untill someone gets knocked up or catches a bad case of AIDS.

I hate this thread. I love my cat.

As long as hate exists, love will fill the negative space.

Originally posted by Tryptych

Originally posted by Sink the Bismarck!
Love is an emotion which urges humans (as well as other animals, possibly) into bonding and mating with each other.

So, if you love your child, you want to have sex with him/her? Is that it?

No. That's a defensive mechanism to protect your progeny.

Just curious though, Tryptych, what are your thoughts about love? Do you view love as a physiological reaction, or as something more supernatural?

[edit on 23/6/10 by Sink the Bismarck!]

My thoughts on love...

Love is a chemical reaction to be able to care for someone to reproduce and nurture.

For survival perposses.

But... Although we know the body uses feromones to decide if a mate is right to copulate and reproduce. As far as genetic matching even.

Love makes us care about one long enough to have children and long enough to raise them.

Nobody knows why. Nobody knows when.

Love is a logical emotion to make us fit to survive. To uphold a lasting relationship that endures long enough to reproduce and nurture our offspring.

However... Love is more than just that. Love makes people care. Care of each other as well as care of their offspring far beyond the needed time to ensure survival.
This is probably because we grow old and loose the needs to defend our selves to the fullest. We need to be taken care of.

Love however seems random and contradictive. We love dangerous people and we love people who don't love us back...

It seems love makes us act crazy and do stupid things going head on with survival.
We don't love all our family. We don't love all who love us.

So...

We understand love and we understand what triggers love.
But...
We don't understand what triggers that love trigger and we do not understand what makes it last...
Does it make love spiritual ? I think it does. We don't understand spiritual, we only experience it and it is usually unexplainable.
I guess that is what makes it spiritual and that it will be just that...

First of all I admit I did not read every post in this thread so I apologize if someone already said what I will. One thing which I have read about and believe to be true is that the 50% failure rate of marriage in current times has a lot to do with the fact that people now die at an older age than ever before.

In turn they are stuck in that marriage for longer leading to divorces. Obviously there are other cultural reasons especially in the U.S. which leads to divorce. However I'm sure the statistics re much different in other places on this planet where divorce is much more rare(and no I'm not talking about Islamic cultures). Either way what I am trying to get at is that divorce rates neither prove or disprove the existence of love as it is far more complicated than that.

Long-term marriage love. I'm not too sure about love that is superficial or that love that happens a few months/years before marriage. But there is such a thing as getting along without feeling forced (e.g. for the sake of the kids). The best way to get along is to place intimacy on 2nd or 100th place coz let's face it, people do get tired of the same old thing. However, there's no excuse in the world to cheat on your spouse if you want a decent family.

The wife and I never felt the feeling of being forced together. Maybe because we have been hanging out together since forever so we do know what makes each other tick or go haywire. I dunno. We do get into fights like everyone, but it's really hard not to make up with your best friend.

Relationships should always be supported by a sturdy foundation of friendship and whatever that goes along with it (e.g. loyalty, respect, giving way, etc. etc. All mutual). And yes. We do show affection during private moments since things happen.

Kids-wise. I don't know. But I think this is the feeling of unconditional love. Let's just say that I'd be willing to give my soul if it's going to save my kids'. Considering that there's a soul in the first place. Maybe that's just me. I do love my kids more than life itself.

[edit on 24-6-2010 by Unregistered]

Of course love exists.

The problem with marriage is that love isn't enough to keep a lasting relationship. My parents loved each other from the beginning. They stayed together for 20 years. They started growing apart after 5. But they stayed together for the kids. After 20 years, my dad was so miserable. They had nothing in common. They didn't like the same music, movies, vacations, and so on. They argued about everything. She loves the city, he loves the country, she loves to be social, he loves to stay home. They have been divorced for 10 years now. They still love each other deeply, they just can't be married to each other because they just can't live together.

The rest of us who are in working marrages, we love our spouses and chances are we happen to be each other's best friend. Afterall, the couple that plays together says together, isn't that what they say?

Love is just a chemical and psychological phenomena. Every one can love, but it can trigger in different circumstances. The same love someone has for their wife/husband is at it's core the same love a serial killer may have stalking his victims, the only difference is what triggers the feelings. That's my opinion anyway, really don't like all the soppy, fanciful descriptions of love. As for marriage, i won't be getting married, complete and utter waste of money imo. I don't need an expensive ceremony to tell someone i love them and would like to spend my life with them.

[edit on 24-6-2010 by Solomons]

Kids-wise. I don't know. But I think this is the feeling of unconditional love. Let's just say that I'd be willing to give my soul if it's going to save my kids'. Considering that there's a soul in the first place. Maybe that's just me. I do love my kids more than life itself.

Unconditional love is something else entirely. I love my husband, but nothing ever would compare to the love i have for my daughter. I think that is instinctive, to insure the survival of our species.

reply to post by Under Water


Genetics sure is cunning.

I would love to find the love that my parents have for eachother, both in their 50's, married since the age of 18, had seven kids, they still hold hands whilst walking together in town or wherever.

I would love to be in love * le sigh *

reply to post by empireofpain


There are many emotions/feelings. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't know what love is. They think for eg: a passion or a fear feeling is love.

Love is the smallest and quietest emotion there is... why? because all the other emotions over ride it.

Most people would not recognise the love feeling:

list of emotions

Love is a emotion...just like like "hate", "anger" and "envy" are emotions. I agree that it is a really powerful emotion but then again emotions are just a state of mind which change eventually....It isn't that love is not real but rather after a point of time it withers down and there is no such thing as "eternal love" which is why relationships do not last forever.

To elucidate further if you were in a long term relationship you would find after a period of time the same degree of feeling just ain't there....cause there's very little new that you have to discover about the person.

Frankly true love can be a pain in the arse and you end up smothering the person so much that they end up running away from you

For a relationship to succeed in the long term the people involved need to have a sort of emotional maturity and that is difficult to come by.

[edit on 30-6-2010 by Leonardo01]:

[edit on 30-6-2010 by Leonardo01]

Originally posted by Leonardo01For a relationship to succeed in the long term the people involved need to have a sort of emotional maturity and that is difficult to come by.

How can a relationship "succeed"? Is it some form of a performance?

I don't understand how people set some expectations, and when those expectations are not met, they get disappointed. With another person, you shouldn't set any expectations, 'cause that will (most likely) lead to disappointment.

It's incredible how people stay together involuntarily. When the communication doesn't work and you don't feel comfortable with that person, hit the road.

But again, this is only between two people. Maybe what we're talking here is something bigger.

love doesnt have a lot to do with marriages

you can love someone but not be married with the person

it doesnt have nothing to do

the problem in marriages is that people just get tired of the same routine, and probably lose "passion" or whatever ...

if you dont love anything in life, you are a psychopath ...