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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2018 2:46:50 GMT
The thread "What does spiritual mean you?" brought me to think of asking this question in a separate thread. While I was reading some of the answers in the spirituality thread I replaced the word "spirituality" with "love" and saw that it can be just as true of a statement depending on perspective of individual. I think this question might be interesting because of the many answers. Love can arguably take different forms and not all be expressed the same way. This doesn't have to only be about romantic love either.
People have different ideas of love that sometimes conflict or agree with each other. From my experience it's never been experienced in a way that I could explain logically. Someone could say maybe love doesn't actually exist but something we invented in order to make more sense of an imperfect world. I see this similar to the concept of God and spirituality and I can see where they connect. I think essentially these things can only exist if you believe they exist, but it depends on the reason why you believe in them and what they actually mean to you.
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Post by captainbryce on Sept 13, 2018 3:11:19 GMT
I believe that love is an emotion that people and animals feel towards other people, animals, things, places, concepts, or ideas that they value, or that have some significant importance to them and their well being. It's driven my a chemical reaction in the brain called oxytocin, which causes living beings to "feel" a certain attachment to (and derive pleasure from) the object of that love.
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Post by Cody™ on Sept 13, 2018 9:36:07 GMT
“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 wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Sept 13, 2018 14:23:38 GMT
Love is first and foremost a principle to be learned and taught.
It’s not as romantic to think of it in those terms but without it the more emotional versions of love can ebb and flow in even the slightest change of moods or circumstances.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2018 5:17:03 GMT
I believe that love is an emotion that people and animals feel towards other people, animals, things, places, concepts, or ideas that they value, or that have some significant importance to them and their well being. It's driven my a chemical reaction in the brain called oxytocin, which causes living beings to "feel" a certain attachment to (and derive pleasure from) the object of that love. I researched oxytocin and found it as more related to positive emotions in social interactions and important in sexual reproduction. It can be argued that love is different from that but it does depend on how love is labeled or defined. I like how this is a scientific explanation  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2018 5:30:25 GMT
Love is first and foremost a principle to be learned and taught. It’s not as romantic to think of it in those terms but without our it the more emotional versions of it can ebb and flow in even the slightest change of moods or circumstances. I think in an ideal situation the concept of love should first be introduced to us as a child by our parents. We then learn through out our lives what love is through our own personal experiences and growth. This doesn't always happen and sometimes we do fall in love with the wrong people because of the lack of guidance in understanding the meaning of love in a positive and healthy way. |
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Post by captainbryce on Sept 14, 2018 11:56:29 GMT
I believe that love is an emotion that people and animals feel towards other people, animals, things, places, concepts, or ideas that they value, or that have some significant importance to them and their well being. It's driven my a chemical reaction in the brain called oxytocin, which causes living beings to "feel" a certain attachment to (and derive pleasure from) the object of that love. I researched oxytocin and found it as more related to positive emotions in social interactions and important in sexual reproduction. It can be argued that love is different from that but it does depend on how love is labeled or defined. I like how this is a scientific explanation I think both of those qualify as what we’d generally describe as different types of “love” wouldn’t you say? |
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Post by thefleetsin on Sept 14, 2018 14:40:43 GMT
i have been a volunteer, on and off, most of my life. and i believe the two years i spent volunteering in a nursing home comes as close to love as any god could venture to portend.
oh and me getting up at the crack of dawn and prepping food for my sweetie every morning. that too! ;-)
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Post by phludowin on Sept 14, 2018 14:52:25 GMT
The question what love is allows people and bands like Howard Jones, Haddaway or Foreigner to have huge hits.
I don't remember any hits about what spirituality is.
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Post by general313 on Sept 14, 2018 15:09:23 GMT
. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” This is the Bible at its best, IMO. |
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Post by thefleetsin on Sept 14, 2018 15:32:22 GMT
at long last lunch
imagine
if all these trump supporters
were
actual
christians
and hunger
was
a thing
of the past
we all
could
laugh about.
sjw 09/14/18 inspired at this very moment in time by a certain level of hypocrisy that apparently walks hand in hand with manifest destiny.
from the 'blitzkrieg series' of poems
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Post by goz on Sept 14, 2018 21:42:29 GMT
Love. Put simply, it is a positive emotional connection.
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Post by SoFarDown on Sept 15, 2018 8:54:14 GMT
I'll try to describe it if I ever experience it  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2018 6:43:17 GMT
I researched oxytocin and found it as more related to positive emotions in social interactions and important in sexual reproduction. It can be argued that love is different from that but it does depend on how love is labeled or defined. I like how this is a scientific explanation I think both of those qualify as what we’d generally describe as different types of “love” wouldn’t you say? You can have positive emotions towards people as well as be social and sexual with them and still not "love" them. I guess what I'm asking is what makes the distinction in these situations when you actually do love someone, because just liking them sexually or getting along with them isn't always enough. I don't know how to explain it logically. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2018 6:45:22 GMT
I'll try to describe it if I ever experience it
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Sept 19, 2018 9:57:42 GMT
Good question, Monicah.
To me it means caring for someone (or something) without any thought of gain for oneself.
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Post by SoFarDown on Sept 19, 2018 10:04:34 GMT
I think both of those qualify as what we’d generally describe as different types of “love” wouldn’t you say? You can have positive emotions towards people as well as be social and sexual with them and still not "love" them. I guess what I'm asking is what makes the distinction in these situations when you actually do love someone, because just liking them sexually or getting along with them isn't always enough. I don't know how to explain it logically. I feel like there's a certain point when a particularly strong bond develops, which engages feelings of sentimental attachment that isn't there with just anyone. Some people can walk in and out of your life, and some you can't stop thinking about. When they aren't near we feel longing or even hurt. I have a hard time anymore viewing it as anything but a chemical process, but some people we just grow to hold very dear, and get to a point where we'd sacrifice our own opportunities and well being just for them. I guess that's as close as I can explain how I view love. I wish I had a poetic take on it, but I have trouble viewing things that way anymore. |
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Sept 19, 2018 10:49:13 GMT
Love is just simply space and being still in the awareness of ones own conscious being. Wow. The awareness of one's own conscious being. How existential was that?  |
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Post by Arlon10 on Sept 19, 2018 11:06:16 GMT
I think for a man it means placing the life of another above his own life. It's in the Bible and a theme of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, greater love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life for another. The theme appears in other literature as well.
I think for a women it means putting the life of her children above her own life.
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Post by Terrapin Station on Sept 19, 2018 11:12:15 GMT
Basically what CaptainBryce said. It's a set of structural/electrical/chemical brain states that amount to one caring about/for someone else more than one normally would care about/for others, to an extent where there's at least a slight merging of personal identities, so that one sees that other person's wellbeing on par with one's own, one feels as if a part of oneself is absent when the other isn't there, etc.
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