What meaning does love have to an atheist?

[TheDarkestOfAngels]

If God does not exist, if there is no eternal spiritual realm beyond the temporal material realm where reason and emotion have their ultimate foundations what meaning does love have? In an atheist worldview where love has no spiritual/non-material foundations what is the difference between the love of a man for his wife and a couple of pigs mating? If love only exists in a material form and is just a series of reactions of chemicals in our brain than what is the difference between a parent's for their child and a junkie getting high?

I can't speak of what love means to other atheists because it is a very personal experience and views on the subject I think vary more on the individual than even the kind of overall worldview of faith or atheism would seem to indicate.
In a more genreal sense, however, I don't understand the necessity of marrying spirituality and love as the two are distinct from one another. I don't understand the necessity of the afterlife implications of having religious faith meaning that love means less to atheists than to theists.
I don't get it at all and if you can explain that to me, then I would appreciate it.
Love to me is that much more special to me - whether it's between me and my lover, my family, or my friends. The fact that there is no afterlife means I need and really should make the most of the life I do have. I should live it free of concern, paranoia, and worry over which afterlife I'm going to have and worry about the here and now aspect of my life. I greatly appreciate the loves I have and lost over my years - my parents - my close friends - and my girlfriends and lovers both past present and future and especially on the day where I can start my own family, because my life on this earth is precious and I'm not going to waste a minute of it worry about whether or not an invisible sky daddy approves of the way I live my life or not.
Life is a very precious thing to me - my own and others - and the people I appreciate the most deserve to have the appreciation they've shown me in the best way I know how to show it.

The one thing I hate about theists and their ideas that god equates to human morality astonishes me greatly because when you come to realize just how small we are in the universe and how quickly each and every one of us will fade out of the grand history of the universe, it can really humble you and make you really understand how important the connections we humans have with one another and how trivial things like money, stuff, and social standing are in the grand scheme of things.

So, I think my life is only made better with the kind of friends and family and support and all the emotions between us can give gives my life far more meaning and it gives me far more happiness in my ongoing pursuit of happiness than just about anything else I'll ever do. That's what love is to me and I could only hope that love will mean the same to my children.

I think it's abominable that anyone that has to be threatened with eternal torture and has to be rewarded with eternal pleasure to behave properly can be properly called a moral person.

That's my take on love, which is by no means complete, but is a decent representative of my overall views.

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You all are a bunch of cowards. This guy or gal comes in and asks legitimate questions, and what do we see? Oh big surprise, red reputation points, feigned offense, vulgarity and insults.

It's their choice to respond in any manner that doesn't break the rules. The most insulting post on the first page is yours because you chose to attack them and they merely attacked the question. Not one of them attacked the poster directly.

You have nothing and you know it. And this is what pisses me off the most about atheists is the cowardice they have of facing the real implications of their philosophy. If there is nothing but matter then love is nothing but matter and that makes it meaningless. It's not even two pigs mating; it's a sick joke.

Which, again, shows your extreme ignorance on atheistic views. You've formed your opinions on atheism and even when surrounded by atheists telling you that you're wrong on how atheists view the world, you stubburnly refuse to bother to listen.
As such, you've demonstrated a deep-seated inability to listen or bother to understand any opposing viewpoints to your own. Are you even here to discuss or are you here to merely confirm your own beliefs?

Adrian says understanding this makes it better. What a load of garbage comparing it to computer technology. You sound like someone who's never lost a thing or loved a thing.

And here you go again - you're not merely attacking someone's idea - even when you consider it wrong, now you're accusing Adrian of not loving his own family because he doesn't ascribe to the fantasies that you do believe in?
This is just outright offensive that even crazy politicians don't do publicly. You've just accused Adrian of being inhuman and inhumane, especially coming from someone who talks about things like 'love thy neighbor' and the revelation of love being a part of a unified nature when you can't even have an honest discussion without horrendously insulting other members of the forum to a degree I frankly consider heinous.