• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Is love a universal truth?

Love is a universal truth?

  • ST---yes

    Votes: 1 4.2%
  • ST---no

    Votes: 1 4.2%
  • SF---yes

    Votes: 2 8.3%
  • SF---no

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • NT---yes

    Votes: 3 12.5%
  • NT---no

    Votes: 10 41.7%
  • NF---yes

    Votes: 1 4.2%
  • NF---no

    Votes: 6 25.0%

  • Total voters
    24
  • Poll closed .

AphroditeGoneAwry

failure to thrive
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
5,585
MBTI Type
INfj
Enneagram
451
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Should it be the center of all that we are, or all that we try to be?

I have adapted my whole ideology about love. It used to be my mantra, so to speak, but now I think of it in an entirely new light.........

How do you think of love, in terms of where it comes from, and what its purpose it, unconditional versus conditional love. Don't forget both sides of love when you respond.

Please don't launch into definitions of romantic love, like, "Love feels like being overtaken in all your senses." Other threads have already been devoted to that.
 

yvonne

A passer by
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
Messages
534
MBTI Type
INfP
Enneagram
5w4
i have to say that i share your "love religion". i just don't have the words to describe it. i have tried to, in other threads before.

how about that for a rather pointless answer, lol.
 

Billy

Crazy Diamond
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
1,192
MBTI Type
INFJ
Im right with you on this, not sex/love im talking love for fellow mankind, a love for life and existence, we should love each other, ourselves and nature for what it all brings to us. The concept of the self while important easily overtakes our higher functions as a species and makes us forget about universal connectivity, i truly believe we are all just brain cells in something some beings bigger head, we are the universe trying to know itself. If everyone looked at life like that, even a blade of grass has a right to exist and to do what it is in its nature to do. Then I think we would be really well off, certainly wouldnt be a need for war or violence. Its really sad to see so many people sell off their birth right (awareness) for cold porridge like money and power.
 

Stanton Moore

morose bourgeoisie
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
3,900
MBTI Type
INFP
it's important to differentiate sexual love and universal love. I think they have no relationship. Sexual love burns hot, but burns out, like hate. Universal love is cool and less intense, but can last for your lifetime.
Passion vs. compassion.
 

yvonne

A passer by
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
Messages
534
MBTI Type
INfP
Enneagram
5w4
^ i disagree. i think sexual love is just another form of love.
 

gromit

likes this
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
6,508
Should it be the center of all that we are, or all that we try to be?

I have adapted my whole ideology about love. It used to be my mantra, so to speak, but now I think of it in an entirely new light.........
What is the new way that you think of it?
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

failure to thrive
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
5,585
MBTI Type
INfj
Enneagram
451
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Im right with you on this, not sex/love im talking love for fellow mankind, a love for life and existence, we should love each other, ourselves and nature for what it all brings to us.

Why?

The concept of the self while important easily overtakes our higher functions as a species and makes us forget about universal connectivity, i truly believe we are all just brain cells in something some beings bigger head, we are the universe trying to know itself. If everyone looked at life like that, even a blade of grass has a right to exist and to do what it is in its nature to do. Then I think we would be really well off, certainly wouldnt be a need for war or violence. Its really sad to see so many people sell off their birth right (awareness) for cold porridge like money and power.

What does love have to do with being connected to others? Is it necessary? People who fight wars feel love all the time. Are they really connected? Do you think if we just had more love we would be a Utopian society?

it's important to differentiate sexual love and universal love. I think they have no relationship. Sexual love burns hot, but burns out, like hate. Universal love is cool and less intense, but can last for your lifetime.
Passion vs. compassion.

What is universal love?

Can you be passionate and have compassion without it being about love?

What is the new way that you think of it?

A more lowly emotion. Like jealousy. A necessary emotion, but not all that we ascribe to it, by far.
 

ajblaise

Minister of Propagandhi
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
7,914
MBTI Type
INTP
Love as a concept is kind of relative, but the neurotransmitters that make up love aren't, and are universal!

Serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine, adrenaline, and vasopressin. :heart:
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

failure to thrive
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
5,585
MBTI Type
INfj
Enneagram
451
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Love as a concept is kind of relative, but the neurotransmitters that make up love aren't, and are universal!

Serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine, adrenaline, and vasopressin. :heart:

Yeah, it is. Relative to everything for humans.

But they aren't universal in animals like they are in us. Unless you are saying all animals feel love.
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

failure to thrive
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
5,585
MBTI Type
INfj
Enneagram
451
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Parhaps a more apt question-is love a universal value?

Good point. Let's add that to the OP.

But what I'm getting at is that do most also consider love to be paramount as a universal truth? Does it exist in the way gravity exists, for example? Also, is it inherent in order to be alive, that we feel love? Or is it something else entirely?
 

luminous beam

♪♫♪♫♪♫
Joined
Feb 12, 2008
Messages
744
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
2w3
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Good point. Let's add that to the OP.

But what I'm getting at is that do most also consider love to be paramount as a universal truth? Does it exist in the way gravity exists, for example? Also, is it inherent in order to be alive, that we feel love? Or is it something else entirely?

Love is something that human beings experience mentally, emotionally and physically but you could say that w/o there being someone to experience it, it would cease to exist. If you were to believe in an all powerful omniscient, omnipresent etc God who is THE universal truth, than perhaps you could then say that God is love and therefor love is also paramount and universal
 

ajblaise

Minister of Propagandhi
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
7,914
MBTI Type
INTP
Yeah, it is. Relative to everything for humans.

But they aren't universal in animals like they are in us. Unless you are saying all animals feel love.

Many animals have the same love-chemicals humans have firing off in their brain. Serotonin is even found in plants.

But I think the difference is humans have the conscious awareness of it. And on a cognitive level it's more complex.
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

failure to thrive
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
5,585
MBTI Type
INfj
Enneagram
451
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Many animals have the same love-chemicals humans have firing off in their brain. Serotonin is even found in plants.

But I think the difference is humans have the conscious awareness of it. And on a cognitive level it's more complex.

Lol. So you think moles feel love, but just aren't conscious of it?
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

failure to thrive
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
5,585
MBTI Type
INfj
Enneagram
451
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Love is something that human beings experience mentally, emotionally and physically but you could say that w/o there being someone to experience it, it would cease to exist.

I agree.

If you were to believe in an all powerful omniscient, omnipresent etc God who is THE universal truth, than perhaps you could then say that God is love and therefor love is also paramount and universal



But what if I don't believe in an omnipotent, omnicient, omnibenevolent God? Does love still exist if people exist? Where does it come from then? Only God? Or somewhere else?
 

luminous beam

♪♫♪♫♪♫
Joined
Feb 12, 2008
Messages
744
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
2w3
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
But what if I don't believe in an omnipotent, omnicient, omnibenevolent God? Does love still exist if people exist? Where does it come from then? Only God? Or somewhere else?

Well, you could break up what I said into two parts. Love defined w/o a God = a mere human experience. A sort of "if a tree falls in the middle of a forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?" type Q. The point you are trying to reach is whether or not LOVE is an independent variable not needing humans (or animals lol) to exist. My answer to that is...who the fuck knows lol.

The other part of my earlier response was that of a more religious/spiritual definition of love. But usually that kind of stuff cannot be proved. However, I think it might be a big influence to a big majority of ppl who believe in a universal love. I think that's the only way one could really attempt at defining the possibility of LOVE standing on it's own and existing w/o the need for humans. Like seeing it as some sort of independent entity.
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

failure to thrive
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
5,585
MBTI Type
INfj
Enneagram
451
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
More so chimps and higher level mammals.

Okay. I agree.

But you said the chemicals that make up our experience of love are universal, and that even plants had them; yet if only higher level mammals have the ability to feel love, it is not, therefore a universal, truth. Is it?

Well, you could break up what I said into two parts. Love defined w/o a God = a mere human experience. A sort of "if a tree falls in the middle of a forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?" type Q. The point you are trying to reach is whether or not LOVE is an independent variable not needing humans (or animals lol) to exist. My answer to that is...who the fuck knows lol.

So you don't think humans can feel love independent of a concept of God? Let's assume there is a God, and people do feel love, is that a universal truth, able to be applied to the workings of the universe and all things everywhere? Or not?

The other part of my earlier response was that of a more religious/spiritual definition of love. But usually that kind of stuff cannot be proved. However, I think it might be a big influence to a big majority of ppl who believe in a universal love. I think that's the only way one could really attempt at defining the possibility of LOVE standing on it's own and existing w/o the need for humans. Like seeing it as some sort of independent entity.

People throw out the term "universal love" a lot, and I have as well. What exactly is that? Can you describe/define that? Does it exist on other planets that have life? Other solar systems? In space?
 

gromit

likes this
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
6,508
Love is something that human beings experience mentally, emotionally and physically but you could say that w/o there being someone to experience it, it would cease to exist. If you were to believe in an all powerful omniscient, omnipresent etc God who is THE universal truth, than perhaps you could then say that God is love and therefor love is also paramount and universal

I like this.
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

failure to thrive
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
5,585
MBTI Type
INfj
Enneagram
451
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
I think people attribute Godlike powers to love, and perceive it as a universal truth, when it in fact, isn't.
 
Top