Hate or Love: Which is more powerful?

[A window to the soul]

Yes. I think this way too. I feel they (love and hate) are equal in potential power or intensity. Apathy is different though.

Correct, now you're catching on. Apathy has nothing to do with this topic. This topic is about the power of love vs. the power of hate.

 

[Anew Leaf]

Hate is clearly more powerful. See: War, ethnic cleansing etc.

I still believe in the power of love being ultimately more powerful than hate.

Hate may be everywhere but it can't totally eradicate the little delicate flowering of love that can crop up in even the worst of circumstances.

 

[ReflecTcelfeR]

The only way to eradicate hate is to take away the benefits from it that humans love.

 

[Qlip]

I don't really think of love as delicate, it's a kind of strong steady force. Love of brother, love of mother, child. Love of music, love of art. It's a constant. Hate burns fierce and short.

 

[A window to the soul]

Note: The opposite of love is apathy, not hate.

False.

You've limited yourself to a concept that's not relevant to this discussion; though I'm sure well intended. Sure yeah, love is the opposite of apathy in regards to caring vs. not caring; so what? What does that have to do with this thread? Look at the context of what you're saying vs. what the OP said. Now look at all of the facts...

Fact: love *is* the opposite of hate, but then Love has many opposites doesn't it? Why?...

Class, let's open our dictionaries to 'love'; notice love is a verb, love is a noun, and there are several definitions. For clarification, the OP is talking about love as a noun (intense emotion or "powerful" force; as in, "the force of love"), not love as a verb (caring for someone). Are you following the simple logic?

For grins, let's compare love to its opposites:

LOVE AS A VERB: love (caring for someone) vs. apathy ( )
LOVE AS A NOUN: love (intense positive emotion) vs. hate (intense negative emotion)...or the object or force that possesses the emotion; such as, "God is love; therefore, love is the most powerful force in the universe."​

Just throwing this out there...
Notice in books like the Bible, there are references to love and hate in the same sentence (as opposite ends of the spectrum).

I hope that helps put things in their proper perspective.

 

[Giggly]

^ Umm, what? I was just making a side note (referred to as Ne). I already said in my first post that I think love and hate are equally powerful.

 

[A window to the soul]

^ Umm, what? I was just making a side note (referred to as Ne). I already said in my first post that I think love and hate are equally powerful.

Correct. Did you notice your side-note got replicated one time too many in the last two days? I decided to pull the plug.

 

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

In typical P-fashion, I vaguely searched a few pages of this forum to see if this topic has been done before... seeing nothing, I decided to make my own thread.

So the question I am curious about is whether you personally believe love or hate is the more powerful force in this world. I am interested in your viewpoint whether it comes from life experience, personal philosophy, or religious reasons.

Hopefully it can end up being a fun discussion!

I personally believe love is more powerful than hate. I also think that both are a choice you make until the choice makes you.

How do you measure power?

 

[Giggly]

Correct. Did you notice your side-note got replicated one time too many in the last two days? I decided to pull the plug.

What are you the thread police? I still think apathy is the opposite of love (and hate). If you disagree with me that's fine.

 

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

What are you the thread police? I still think apathy is the opposite of love (and hate). If you disagree with me that's fine.

Light-hearted discussion is SRS BSNS

 

[A window to the soul]

What are you the thread police? I still think apathy is the opposite of love (and hate). If you disagree with me that's fine.

Giggly, I'm sorry if I gave you that impression.

I still think apathy is the opposite of love (and hate). If you disagree with me that's fine.

I didn't take issue with that.

I took issue with the bolded constraint and how nobody else stepped in to help you see other possibilities.-->

Note: The opposite of love is apathy, not hate.

 

[Giggly]

I tried to see the possibility you pointed out but I can't and I didn't want to continue the discussion because you didn't seem to like that. anyways, like you asked, I looked up the word "love" as a noun and a verb elsewhere online and it seems to be an issue of semantics to me but the meanings are essentially the same -- that love is a feeling. Hate is also more recognizable and "in your face" than apathy. Apathy is more silent and covert.

I'm not good at explaining myself.

 

[Stigmata]

What are you the thread police? I still think apathy is the opposite of love (and hate). If you disagree with me that's fine.

I agree with NerdGirl on this one. Apathy in this context would be the absence of any sort of clearly defined emotion, whereas hate is simply on the opposite end of the spectrum in relation to hate. If anything, apathy is the point of neutrality between the two.

 

[Giggly]

I don't see how apathy could be in the middle of the two. I see love and hate as two separate but equal spectrums with apathy at the opposite end of both spectrums.

 

[Stigmata]

I don't see how apathy could be in the middle of the two.

Because it's the lack of emotion, thus it's neither hate nor love.

 

[Keps Mnemnosyne]

Oh the ways:

Love----------------------------Apathy--------------------------Hate

or

|Love
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|Hate
|__________________________________________
Apathy----------------------------------Interested

or

Apathy--------------------------------Love
Apathy--------------------------------Hate

Or really many ways can be used to describe it.

It's great to have definitions for yourself of these concepts and be able to explain them to others so you can get to an agreed definition to work with in debates, but to say another is wrong is in itself an attempt to objectify something subjectively defined.

For example if love and hate are polar opposites in energy and feeling. How can someone hate and love the same person at the same time? That person would have to have these energies together (or you would have to argue that it's not possible). Which is fine and doable, but would complicate the theory.

According to the third idea, love and hate are not on a shared feeling spectrum and therefore it's easier to explain how to hate and love at the same time as they are different spectrums. But is this the correct choice? No and yes. To those who agree with this interpretation yes, to others no.

If we want to expand our mind, why don't we truly expand it?

 

[Synapse]

Hate is an illusion, love is real. Human love and human hate cancel like ying and yang. Unconditional love is eternal.

Apathy like indifference is a fence sitter in the globalisation of words whose concepts are best represented symbolically. Much like peace and tranquility. Harmony and balance. Equilibration along the emotional scale, the curve of movements changes in accordance with the intention of the spirit. And that withstanding is more powerful than words. For words have a watering down effect that create a precinct of control, and in that control blindness ensues to the portents of dichotomies, divergent multitudes of words in use, much like the diversity of fuck. I can say I fucking hate you, die in a fire. Or I can say I fucking love you in all the places that count! But what is more powerful a lexicon here. love, hate, what is love hate. what is hate love. what isn't love and hate. Its a double sided experience, that likes to justify yet nullify conditions, when conditions like power are removed from the equation what is left an unconditional love. There is power here but it is not the power of love and hate, it is unconditional eternal unlimited. Like a placenta of nutritional love connected to higher consciousness, so too the placenta of nutritional love travels without constraints as the fibers and cells of being sing in gratitude, love and joy.

I hope I cleared things up.

 

[ReflecTcelfeR]

Technically I'd say Giggly's right on this one. Apathy is lack of any emotion (nothing in this instance) and that is the opposite of love and hate, which are something.

It's presences vs absence. Of course apathy is not just the opposite of love it's the opposite of emotion itself.

 

[Ginkgo]

Love and truth go hand-in-hand. To hate, you misunderstand.

 

[Anew Leaf]

Technically I'd say Giggly's right on this one. Apathy is lack of any emotion (nothing in this instance) and that is the opposite of love and hate, which are something.

It's presences vs absence. Of course apathy is not just the opposite of love it's the opposite of emotion itself.

Yes, very true.

Perhaps the model needs to be 3-d instead of linear.