@ Jacob-
To be straight, I don't give a fig what you believe as long as you're not pushing it on others. Whatever gets you through the day. But it IS curious to me that you have this mindset, and I'm glad you're willing to explore it in conversation.
Love is a real biochemical phenomenon. Studying it doesn't reduce its power in our lives one whit. I have never seen facing truths like this one- that love is a measurable product of evolutionary mechanism- to be reductive in the slightest. How does that take anything away from the experience of your children's love (if you feel your wife is only with you because she can't do any better, then I can't help you with that one)? Understanding reality always makes life better, IMO. I love the title of Dawkins' book for children- The Magic of Reality.
So I'm still not clear on the purpose of the masking fiction (or possible fiction), since this analogy doesn't work for me. Whatever the origin of your children's love for you, it's there and it's wonderful. If they love you because god makes them do that, that's hardly more ennobling (it makes them seem like puppets). Not thinking too hard about its physiological basis doesn't make it less real. It still seems to me that you're knowingly and deliberately choosing comforting lies to avoid dealing with things that make you feel uncomfortable.
To be straight, I don't give a fig what you believe as long as you're not pushing it on others. Whatever gets you through the day. But it IS curious to me that you have this mindset, and I'm glad you're willing to explore it in conversation.
Love is a real biochemical phenomenon. Studying it doesn't reduce its power in our lives one whit. I have never seen facing truths like this one- that love is a measurable product of evolutionary mechanism- to be reductive in the slightest. How does that take anything away from the experience of your children's love (if you feel your wife is only with you because she can't do any better, then I can't help you with that one)? Understanding reality always makes life better, IMO. I love the title of Dawkins' book for children- The Magic of Reality.
So I'm still not clear on the purpose of the masking fiction (or possible fiction), since this analogy doesn't work for me. Whatever the origin of your children's love for you, it's there and it's wonderful. If they love you because god makes them do that, that's hardly more ennobling (it makes them seem like puppets). Not thinking too hard about its physiological basis doesn't make it less real. It still seems to me that you're knowingly and deliberately choosing comforting lies to avoid dealing with things that make you feel uncomfortable.
