by Hamas 24 Replies latest jw friends
LOVE is stronger
Why do people hate? Sometimes it's because they've been personally wronged. I would say more often than not, though, it's because they think they are a better person or nationality or race etc. thus showing that they love THEMSELVES.
Hatred is stupid.
Love is nieve.
Reason is what accomplishes the most good for all concerned.
IMHO
TimB
love.... always has been, always will.
i think it varies from person to person. some people have a greater capacity for hatred than they do for love, in my opinion.
Hatred is stupid, I agree....but then in a lot of ways so is love.
I like to love more than I like to hate, but I love to hate.
People are 'normally' willing to die for love and 'normally' only willing to kill for hate.
As dying seems to be rather more inconvenient, on the surface of it love is stronger.
Of course, then you have the misguided zealots who act as suicide bombers. These seemingly break the rule of love being stonger. But perhaps in their own mind (distorted as it is with rhetoric), they are dying for love; love of an oppressed people.
However, it's hard to imagine hate motivating people to do anything quite as big, as for example, setting up a charity to help Indonesian and English kids to know more each other as a result of the Bali bombings; founded by people who lost loved ones in the bombings. The hate that one could fall victim to in such a circumstance can be no way near as the love that leads one out of that dreadful sitaution, a love that maybe just maybe leads us towards a better way.
I like Martin Luther King's statement;
'the long slow curve of humanity is towards justice'.
In the final analysis, hate can burn itself out. Love can't. Love is stonger than gravity, hate's not in the same league.
While hate may destroy the thing/person hated, it also destroys the one hating. Love neutralizes the thing/person hated, and helps the person who loves to grow.
I have learned this over many years dealing with the abuse of my parents. I can't say I love my parents as some people love their parents. But I no longer let my feelings about them dominate and control my life now.
Blondie
It's true. If it wasn't we wouldn't be here to have this discussion. Hate, like all two-bit low-rent cheap-ass emotions, is a weakness, given power only by our fears. I hate hate.
I guess hate can be more powerful, but only to an extant. Love is a very powerful word no one wants to hear it unless u mean it. but when u say hate it hurts someone, and or pisses them off and starts a war! No one really likes the word love unless it is used properly, same goes for hate. most likely people would rather hear u say i dis-like that instead of saying i hate that, becuz dis-like is a more respectable term to use, hate can really bring someone down. Love isn't a word that should be ill'used becuz that is just another way to hurt someone's feelings. so either way they are both very powerful words. they both can hurt, but one can make someone happy, so in my mind love is more powerful towards people themselves.
Interesting discussion.
Frankly I don't rank emotions. How can you? Love is stronger than hate, but hate is stronger than joy, and joy only beats out sadness by a narrow margin. Please!
I have and always will look at this question (because it has been asked before) as a continuum. Love is at one end and hate is at the other. Both of them cause people to do stupid things. Both cause people heartache and pain. Both get talked a lot about in poetry, art, stories, and film. The tingly hot feeling you get in your gut that you get when you stand next the one you love, is also there when you stand next to those you hate. Etc. Etc.
Rocketman said:
But if love doesn't win out ultimately, you're screwed, I guess.
This to me is the crux of the matter, and why people say Love is stronger. Because if it isn't, we don't stand a chance. I think the original quote Hammas gave us to get the ball rolling stems from this. People don't like hate, love is much more fun (sometimes). Therefore love has to win the day because it is good and hate is bad. But is it? I prefer a more eastern stance that you have to have both in life or universal balance is all out of whack.
Each person here could give a story that illustrated how Love is the strongest emotion. And in turn everyone could also tell a story highlighting how Hate is a strong and powerful emotion. Again, it's about perspective and timing in our lives.
As a matter of history, it is easier to destroy than to create.
One can love so much (your mate, your child, your country) that you offer your own life to protect and defend. This can create an ideal, and inspire others to a better way.
One can hate so much, that you destroy the object of hatred, and anything associated with it. This can create a vaccum into which anything can sprout, causing matters to be worse.
Fear, anger and hatred have caused more misery and created the worst nightmares in human history.
Peace, restraint and love have healed those pains and created the most beautiful dreams. Love and hate is the dichotomy of humanity. The choices we make in our lives show which side, and on which path we walk.
