the insanity of faith

Originally posted by @kellyjay
1 Corinthians 13English Standard Version (ESV)
The Way of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away ...[text shortened]... , and so on. Life
is a struggle, and we can either take this path, or deal in more of the same.

And, Kellyjay, don't you have the feeling that 4 is in fact all about Grace illuminating a person? It seems to me that 4 describes how a thus enabled person is so perfectly well balanced in Grace that inhales hatred and exhales naturally agape.
The level in which this process takes place, methinks is mind-only;
So, with a spirit transformed this way and her focus of attention permanently fixed in Grace's mindstream, one has a permanent direct experience that makes one radiating Love. At this level of awareness, there are no friends and enemies -all kinds of dualism crash; there is solely Grace, solely swirling in G-d's Love.
This is how this atheist scarab reads it. No big deal😵

Originally posted by @fmf
You perhaps only read the heading of the article and thought it would suffice as 'corroboration'. Now you have [presumably] read the actual content, and now you have [presumably] read and understood my response, you know that I perceive the content of the article as somewhat of a red herring.

The content of the article ~ along with its misleading title - whi ...[text shortened]... ave feelings of "love" with decisions made regarding, and as a consquence of, feelings of "love"

If you want to believe that love is forced and you have no choice in it you are welcome to do so.

Originally posted by @dj2becker
If you want to believe that love is forced and you have no choice in it you are welcome to do so.

"Forced"? I haven't used the word "forced". There are all manner choices one can make with regard to how one handles the onset or consequences of "love", including the choice of who we marry and how strong our commitment is to making a marriage work. You have introduced the word "forced", not me. It would seem you haven't read what I have posted or simply haven't understood what it is I have been saying. Either that or your use of the word "forced" is mere sophistry, as it was when you used it in a reply to Ghost of a Duke.

Originally posted by @fmf
"Forced"? I haven't used the word "forced". There are all manner choices one can make with regard to how one handles the onset or consequences of "love", including the choice of who we marry and how strong our commitment is to making a marriage work. You have introduced the word "forced", not me. It would seem you haven't read what I have posted or simply haven ...[text shortened]... f the word "forced" is mere sophistry, as it was when you used it in a reply to Ghost of a Duke.

Again you are conflating infatuation with love.

Originally posted by @ghost-of-a-duke
The point is, kindness is not love. I can be kind to enemies and friends, but can only love friends.

If kindness is not a measure of love how do you measure it?

Originally posted by @dj2becker
Again you are conflating infatuation with love.

No, I am not. You are scrabbling around to superimpose things onto what I have actually said. There's no need to. You can simply agree to disagree with me. You don't have to make false claims about what I am saying or paraphrase it in inaccurate ways. I have been clear about my view. You can just disagree with it.

Originally posted by @fmf
No, I am not. You are scrabbling around to superimpose things onto what I have actually said. There's no need to. You can simply agree to disagree with me. You don't have to make false claims about what I am saying or paraphrase it in inaccurate ways. I have been clear about my view. You can just disagree with it.

Superimposing things onto what others say is your speciality. I believe the emotional feeling you describe is infatuation and not love. You are welcome to call it love of course, but most psychologists would agree that there is more to love than the feeling of infatuation.

Originally posted by @dj2becker
Superimposing things onto what others say is your speciality. I believe the emotional feeling you describe is infatuation and not love. You are welcome to call it love of course, but most psychologists would agree that there is more to love than the feeling of infatuation.

I have been talking about love. Not infatuation. You think otherwise. So then. You now agree to disagree with me?

Originally posted by @dj2becker
If kindness is not a measure of love how do you measure it?

We could define emotions (latent or emergent) and recognize behavior, cognition and physiology within emotion categories; we may tackle emotions as a direct product of specific brain circuits or emerging from distributed neural networks, recognizing love as basic or higher order, using in addition FACS, SPAFF, EKG etc.
Surely we can measure love, and the exact process depends on our theoretical orientation. I would like to see Ghost’s reply as regards this matter;
😵

Originally posted by @dj2becker
Kindness is an act of love. You cannot be kind towards your enemies unless your heart overflows with love and compassion.

I can fake an act of kindness to an enemy. I can't fake love. (Why? Because love is not a choice or something i can force. It is felt).

Originally posted by @dj2becker
If kindness is not a measure of love how do you measure it?

Kindness is a component of love, not a measure. It is also a component of other emotions, such as compassion, which is much more easily extended to enemies.

Originally posted by @ghost-of-a-duke
I can fake an act of kindness to an enemy. I can't fake love. (Why? Because love is not a choice or something i can force. It is felt).

How then can you tell whether or not someone has love if it is only something that they feel?

Just shot yourself in the foot. Because if love is only a feeling then you can't tell whether or not someone else has love. And therefore you can't claim to know that someone doesn't have love for their enemies.

Originally posted by @ghost-of-a-duke
Kindness is a component of love, not a measure. It is also a component of other emotions, such as compassion, which is much more easily extended to enemies.

Yes kindness and compassion are acts of love. You can choose to be kind and compassionate right or are you forced to do those as well?

Originally posted by @dj2becker
How then can you tell whether or not someone has love if it is only something that they feel?

Just shot yourself in the foot. Because if love is only a feeling then you can't tell whether or not someone else has love. And therefore you can't claim to know that someone doesn't have love for their enemies.

If you had even a rudimentary understanding of love, you would know it is something you can't fake. You either feel it or you don't feel it. As it is not a choice, and can not be forced, how could one possibly love something that they hate, (aka an enemy).

The best you can muster is kindness towards an enemy, and although kindness is a component of love, it is not love itself.

Originally posted by @dj2becker
Yes kindness and compassion are acts of love. You can choose to be kind and compassionate right or are you forced to do those as well?

Kindness and compassion can emanate from love, but can just as easily emanate from our conscience or basic humanity.

The other day, for example, I moved a baby squirrel away from a main road, so that it didn't get squished by a car. It could be stated that I showed kindness and compassion towards the squirrel, but not that I loved the squirrel. - The same would be the case if I or anyone else showed kindness and compassion to an enemy. To equate that with love is just Christian pretentiousness.