Quote Originally Posted by damyanti View Post
I’m a love atheist. I don’t believe love is real. I think it’s instinct and social calculation that makes people bond with each other.
What's not real about that? Regardless of where you think emotions do or do not come from, and I do agree that love is borne of science so complex most of us will never fully understand it, it is still very much real. Maybe is not a rainbows-dribbling-gumdrops-over-a-field-of-heart-shaped-posies kinda' fairytale, but a feeling is still a damn tangible noun in my book.

To me, love is a response to the the strongest values we hold - where those values come from is a whole 'nother post, but love is that which we desire that reflects us the most deeply, whether or not what we desire is a "good" or a "bad" thing.

I love J because the traits I see in him I respect and often aspire to, I recognize the beauty of characteristics in him that I hold dear. In turn, he "sees" me, and he adores in me the things I am proud of and wish most to share. We understand each other at a level that is deeper than most friendship based relationships, and it is important for each of us to both be known and understood as a partner. We each have emotional eyes that can discern the particular colors of the other, and hands that can feel the texture of the other with heightened sensitivity.

Borne of science? Sure, but who says science can't evolve a soul? Why does an emotion have to be lesser than a beautiful and amazing bit of humanity because it is an evolutionary product? Yeah, love litters the pages of books, but all the pages of books came from within the heads of men, and that to me makes it even more real.