(July 9, 2014 at 6:38 am)Esquilax Wrote: I don't buy this idea that just because love is a chemical arrangement in my brain, my experience of it is somehow devalued, or different from anyone else's. It's still the same experience, it carries the same import as it would to someone who believes it's some special soul magic, because it's elicited by my consciousness and history with a person. Why should the fact that I know where it comes from, and that that origin is mundane rather than supernatural, make the effect less valuable?
I like being in love, I love the woman I'm with, I've loved others and will love again, and any theist who feels they have a license to scoff at the legitimacy of my emotions because of my belief about gods is an asshole. Not saying that's you, OP, just making a statement in general there.
No Offense taken. I don’t really think it’s a matter of ‘knowing where it happens in the brain,’ so much as it is ‘whether the feeling itself is more meaningful than what produces it.’
I didn’t intend to denigrate your view, actually I find it the most unusual. Being controlled by the chemistry in our brains sounds almost alien; as though it were ‘predetermined’ in a sense?
(July 8, 2014 at 11:52 pm)bennyboy Wrote: I'm sorry, but this thread is bullshit until "significant" is defined. The feelings we call love are obviously very strong motivators-- they cause people to behave in ways they otherwise wouldn't. If people's behavior is significant, then love is significant.
I think what you are really trying to get at is at mind/matter duality, with the possibility of the existence of the soul and God as "peripheral." Unlike most here, I'm not a physical monist, so I agree with much of what I expect you to say. However, since you've declared as Christian, I assume you are also building a case in order to support the idea of a Christian God. I won't agree with that.
Also, welcome.
... Sometimes I feel like my very presence here is a form of trolling (Lol). Honestly, I’m not “telling” you what love is, I’m asking. Significance is particular; I expected differing opinions and that’s what I asked for.
Sure, I could give my own opinion, but that’s no fun. I’m eager to hear from the rest of you. (And by the way, thanks all of you
)
Call me Josh, it's fine.
