What meaning does love have to an atheist?

[ABierman1986]

Yea, it does look that way....damn it I honestly had high hopes for him in our first couple of interactions.

[TheDarkestOfAngels]

Hey, idiot. I think you know who I'm talking to. Don't even try to manipulate me into, "Oh, that's not what I meant. I dddddidn't mean that." Because I don't give a shit. My words stand as I have written them. I'm not responsible for whatever slant you want to put on them to build your stupid strawmen.

I've done no such strawman arguements. That would require that I twist your statements to something other than their intended meaning and since you've given me no reason to believe that I've done any such thing, I'm fine with the consequences of my methodology of countering your utterly nonsensical idiocy.

Frankly you can call our 'dance' whatever you want, but I'm not having a discussion with you (such that it is) becuase i want to and especially because I feel absolutely no privilage in it whatsoever. I'm doing so because I clearly cannot let the horrifying magnitude of your ignorant statements and arguements stand without a response from a rational and far more nuanced like of reasoning. I frequently demand that you respond not because I require some 'pity dance' as you claim I want, but because you never bother to with any discussion of any counterpoints anyone makes against your often ridiculous, ignorant, and abominably wrong claims.

Though I feel I have to give you credit for being right about something, it'll be that you're correct in there being a limited amount of time you'll have to casually and proudly insult and harass anyone who disagrees with you until someone finally bans you from this forum for being the troll you clearly are.

[Edwardo Piet]

A rock cannot love a rock.

Rocks don't experience the emotion of 'love', so that's true.

A human that is nothing more than matter cannot love another human being, not really.

A human can experience the emotion of love. This is already the case so whether we're made of matter or not is irrelevant.

[Edward the Theist]

Yea, it does look that way....damn it I honestly had high hopes for him in our first couple of interactions.

Yeah, well, I had high hopes for you to. So much for high hopes.

[Edwardo Piet]

Fuck hope in the ear. Hope is postponed disappointment. Excitement is better... because at least then it feels good beforehand even if you turn out to be wrong.

[Edward the Theist]

A human can experience the emotion of love. This is already the case so whether we're made of matter or not is irrelevant.

You know, it's interesting you bring that up. If love was an emotion, then I'd agree with you. Jesus always seemed to illustrate love as an action, usually a kind of caring. He never described it as a feeling or an emotion. I tend to agree with him.

Feelings are so fleeting, wouldn't you agree? Is that what you think love is, a feeling?

---

Fuck hope in the ear. Hope is postponed disappointment. Excitement is better... because at least then it feels good beforehand even if you turn out to be wrong.

I like that.

[Edwardo Piet]

Feelings are so fleeting, wouldn't you agree? Is that what you think love is, a feeling?

The verb "to love" is talking about the emotional partiality or care towards something is it not? If I say "I love that" or "I love you" I mean, I am partial towards and/or care about you. Love means "like a lot".

Love as caring can amount to devotion in romantic relationship, and also affection.

So sure, I think love is a feeling. In the same way the opposite, hate, is a feeling. When you hate someone or something it means you strongly dislike them or it - which equates to emotion once again.

I would think that love can be expressed through 'loving' actions... but I think that also comes more specifically from 'compassion' which is something I think emotionally deeper than sympathy and they both depend on empathy.

[TheDarkestOfAngels]

To sort of build on what Evidence vs. Faith was saying;
Love can have many definitions and many kinds of love.
There is the love between two lovers.
There is the love between husband and wife.
There is the love between a person and their pets.
There is the love between family and close friends.

There are many kinds of love but what isn't important about love is the word - what is important is the connection it implies. These relationships can be built on a solid foundation of mutual caring, devotion, loyalty, mutual respect, and empathy for one another that produces feelings that can last a lifetime through virtually any difficulty.

As such, I think it can equate to feelings, but unlike the more fleeting feelings, such as my love of pizza, mountain dew, and strippers, it's far deeper and certainly far more meaningful and persistant.
It's a fundemental human experience to the point to where, considering our social nature, that if you don't or haven't felt love, you're missing the essential human experience - like missing the point of being human in the first place.

Hell, if Professor Farnsworth can teach the Toaster to feel love, then certainly there can be hope for humanity.

[Edwardo Piet]

Hell, if Professor Farnsworth can teach the Toaster to feel love, then certainly there can be hope for humanity.

I'm not so sure.

And as I said, fuck hope, fuck it in the ear.

[Tiberius]

Are you crazy? Seriously, do you even consider the shit you believe? How can matter make itself matter? It is what it is.

Did you mean "How can matter make itself meaningful?". If so, I explained that above. Meaning is a subjective neurological phenomenon; our brains fire neurons (matter & energy) and this in turn creates our consciousness, through which we experience meaning, love, etc.

You have reduced human beings to rocks, and then you say the rocks through an illusion of consciousness make themeselves matter.

No I haven't. The differences between rocks and humans are so absurdly big that I don't really understand how you could even think I meant this. The primary difference of course is that *humans are alive*.

A rock cannot love a rock. A human that is nothing more than matter cannot love another human being, not really.

Only if you ignore everything about neurology. Rocks aren't alive; of course they can't love. They can't breathe either, but that doesn't mean that because humans are made of the same things, they can't breathe. Fallacious reasoning.

Why don't you be honest?

Why do you, instead of taking what I say and just responding to it as if it were my belief, feel the need to assume I am in some way being dishonest.

I may lie sometimes in some situations; I'm not perfect. However, one thing I can guarantee is that I will not lie in a debate. So you can stop with the questions about my honesty.

Why don't you, as an atheist at least admit that love is as big an illusion as God? Is it because you want to appear good? You want to be an atheist, but you are unwilling to be an atheist. You want to be a saint, but saints don't existst among rocks.

Love isn't an illusion though; I've experience love. I know love exists as something. Science tells us that love is most probably a neurological reaction, and I have no reason to doubt that hypothesis since nobody has come up with a better one in my view.

I'm not unwilling to be an atheist. You again show a complete lack of understanding of what atheists are. We are people who don't believe in gods. As long as that is true, we can believe anything else. We can believe in spiritual realms, ghosts, etc. It is all irrelevant as long as we don't believe in gods.