10 Feb 22
3 edits
@kellyjay saidLove is not a conscious choice. You can't "choose" to love someone, you either do or don't.
Can you love someone by force? Is it love if it is a programmed response? Is it only genuine if it is freely given?
Parents are already programed to love their children. Most animals instinctually care for their young. They, like humans, are preprogramed to love their offspring.
Yes, we can develop love some people, like for a friend over time. But it's not a choice. We don't choose to love; we just realize that we do.
10 Feb 22
@vivify saidAbsolutely. Although it has been asserted in this forum that loving and caring for one’s own children is altruism.
Parents are already human beings are already preprogramed to love their children. Most animals instinctually care for their young. They, like humans, are preprogramed to love their offspring.
10 Feb 22
@vivify saidI disagree from scripture for God so loved the world He gave His Son. If we love the Lord we will obey His commandments. If we love our family we will provide for them, we will meet their needs, comfort them. If we love our neighbors we will be looking after them doing what needs done.
Love is not a conscious choice. You can't "choose" to love someone, you either do or don't.
Parents are already programed to love their children. Most animals instinctually care for their young. They, like humans, are preprogramed to love their offspring.
Yes, we can develop love some people, like for a friend over time. But it's not a choice. We don't choose to love; we just realize that we do.
Those who think love is nothing but an emotion fall in and out of love as soon as the grass looks greener elsewhere. Love is a commitment that doesn’t change in good times or bad. It is not a programmed response to our biological makeup where we must do that. Abortion should dispel that notion, drug addiction where people choose to satisfy their desires over family, sexual abuses within family destroys that notion we must take care and love them.
Without any doubt love is a choice!
We should yes, but we can refuse just as we can walk away from someone who loves us, for an emotional connection.
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10 Feb 22
@kellyjay saidPerhaps the emotion or feeling of love isn’t a choice but how one acts from that emotion or feeling is definitely a choice - actually a series of choices every day.
If love were honest in this created world, could it be programmed like a robot to act one way instead of another? If love were real, is choice a requirement?
10 Feb 22
@kellyjay saidShowing love through actions is a choice; whether we actually love someone or not isn't.
I disagree from scripture for God so loved the world He gave His Son. If we love the Lord we will obey His commandments. If we love our family we will provide for them, we will meet their needs, comfort them. If we love our neighbors we will be looking after them doing what needs done.
Those who think love is nothing but an emotion fall in and out of love as soon as the g ...[text shortened]... , but we can refuse just as we can walk away from someone who loves us, for an emotional connection.
And that's actually a good thing. Imagine if we had to consciously choose to love a baby. If it was up to most people, the incessant crying, lack of sleep, disgusting diapers, financial drain, etc., would make it quite difficult for anyone to make that choice.
I'm convinced there'd be far fewer human beings on this planet love was a choice.
10 Feb 22
@vivify saidLove can be nothing but a choice an act of will, commitment for life. Treating each other as if they were a piece of clothing to try on to see if the feeling is good is very shallow and self-serving. Marriage vows are a commitment to act, I will take…
Showing love through actions is a choice; whether we actually love someone or not isn't.
And that's actually a good thing. Imagine if we had to consciously choose to love a baby. If it was up to most people, the incessant crying, lack of sleep, disgusting diapers, financial drain, etc., would make it quite difficult for anyone to make that choice.
I'm convinced there'd be far fewer human beings on this planet love was a choice.
Our society has lost faith in the institution of marriage in my opinion because love is now defined as a feeling, those come and go, we can get mad, desire the pretty friend. Our feelings are too flakey to trust, a dedicated act of faithfulness for life, that is love.
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10 Feb 22
@kellyjay saidRight, and people fall out of love all the time (or at least say they do.)
@PB1022
Feelings come and go
It’d probably be helpful if you defined “love.”
And if you think a comparison can be made between human love and God’s love, I don’t think the two are at all the same. I’m not saying you do think a comparison can be made; I’m just pointing out that I don’t think one can’t be made.
And I think love at its inception or root is an emotion or feeling.
10 Feb 22
@pb1022 saidThere is no doubt it’s a feeling. I’d quote 1 Corte 13 if I were not typing with one finger on my phone.
Right, and people fall out of love all the time (or at least say they do.)
It’d probably be helpful if you defined “love.”
And if you think a comparison can be made between human love and God’s love, I don’t think the two are at all the same. I’m not saying you do think a comparison can be made; I’m just pointing out that I don’t think one can’t be made.
And I think love at its inception or root is an emotion or feeling.
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10 Feb 22
@kellyjay saidLove at its root or inception or root *is* an emotion or feeling.
Love can be nothing but a choice an act of will, commitment for life. Treating each other as if they were a piece of clothing to try on to see if the feeling is good is very shallow and self-serving. Marriage vows are a commitment to act, I will take…
Our society has lost faith in the institution of marriage in my opinion because love is now defined as a feeling, those co ...[text shortened]... riend. Our feelings are too flakey to trust, a dedicated act of faithfulness for life, that is love.
Why does someone fall in love with one person and another?
Do you think a girl wakes up and says, “Today, I’m making the choice to fall in love with Brad” or a guy wakes up and says, “Today, I’m going to fall in love with Debbie.”
How one acts toward the person he or she loves is a choice and a series of choices every day. The behavior exhibited by someone in love is a choice, but I don’t think *who they fall in love with* is a choice.
11 Feb 22
@pb1022 saidAs I said, feeling comes and goes.
Love at its root or inception or root *is* an emotion or feeling.
Why does someone fall in love with one person and another?
Do you think a girl wakes up and says, “Today, I’m making the choice to fall in love with Brad” or a guy wakes up and says, “Today, I’m going to fall in love with Debbie.”
How one acts toward the person he or she loves is a choice and a series o ...[text shortened]... xhibited by someone in love is a choice, but I don’t think *who they fall in love with* is a choice.
1 Corinthians 13
English Standard Version
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.