atheist: love how did it evolve and what is it?
by cyberjesus 11 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
dgp
I don't know how love evolved, but I do know that I feel it as a sincere and self-denying wish for somebody else's happiness and fulfillment.
-
John Doe
That's an easy one. A naked baby goes around shooting people with arrows, infecting them with the pathogenic disease. It evolved into arrows because kicking people in the ass wasn't as effective.
-
frankiespeakin
Feelings of love are caused by chemical reactions like dopamine, seratonin, oxytocin, testosterone, etc...
http://people.howstuffworks.com/love6.htm
http://family.jrank.org/pages/1084/Love-Attachment-Theory-Evolution-Love.html
-
-
Twitch
What Frankie said
How did any feeling "evolve"?
As for a definition, well, good luck with that (beyond the scientific observation of what causes it and any feeling for that matter). Poets needed here,...;)
Obviously, you're asking the "atheist" of which I am one. I ask you is love something only the believers have and can explain? If so, let's hear it,...
-
cyberjesus
Everything has a function. Do animals love? or is it instinct? We need love as babies otherwise we die, why do we need love?
-
TastingFreedom
What is love? Isn't it just the need to create the best environment for survival, provide the necessary conditions to have a partner that will help in the survival of descendants (or offspring). The best candidate (great genetic conditions for survival features) for "love" offers the best conditions to procreate as part of survival.
Love became part of the human development as an abstract concept, just like the concept of God.. or highly-evolved beings that develop such characteristics! Love inspired poetry, basically the desire to procreate when it wasn't so easy, specially for those who were at disadvantage genetically... (not so handsome, not so tall, not so strong, not good hunters... So they started writing poetry....and trying to overcome those deficiencies with words... :P {highly speculative}
-
shamus100
Do animals love? or is it instinct? We need love as babies otherwise we die, why do we need love?
A) Animals love because it's instinct.
B) We need to procreate, and we need love in order to do it. Natural selection.
See? Your question had all the answers.
-
doofdaddy
I'll have a try...
Once humans evolved to the point that we became conscious of our individuality, e.g. "I think therfore I am", our eyes became open to the reality of aloneness and the ultimate aloneness, death, which no one can travel with you.
So, there became a deep need for humans to form close bonds, not just for procreation and efficient hunting and safety but to (attempt to) satisfy the growing awareness of death.
I would imagine that feelings of love would have evolved at the same time as humans started looking to gods/religion and also the early beginnings of funeral ceremonies.