Love?

For the love of the pursuit of knowledge

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
ThePainefulTruth
Sage
Posts: 841
Joined: Fri May 30, 2014 9:47 am
Location: Arizona

Love?

Post #1

Post by ThePainefulTruth »

Love. Is that all there is? I look around and I see love being put on a pedestal. "Love is all there is." "Love is everything." "Love is the only thing." "Love is the meaning of life." "All you need is love." "God is love", which would mean, "Love is God."

Is Love God, or should it be? Is that enough?

User avatar
Haven
Guru
Posts: 1803
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:23 pm
Location: Tremonton, Utah
Has thanked: 70 times
Been thanked: 52 times
Contact:

Post #2

Post by Haven »

Love is just an emotion caused by a pattern of neurons firing in the brain and reinforced through various cultural signs and social constructions. It isn't a god, and it shouldn't be one in my subjective opinion.
♥ Haven (she/her) ♥
♥ Kindness is the greatest adventure ♥

User avatar
ThePainefulTruth
Sage
Posts: 841
Joined: Fri May 30, 2014 9:47 am
Location: Arizona

Re: Love?

Post #3

Post by ThePainefulTruth »

dupe
Truth=God

User avatar
ThePainefulTruth
Sage
Posts: 841
Joined: Fri May 30, 2014 9:47 am
Location: Arizona

Post #4

Post by ThePainefulTruth »

Haven wrote: Love is just an emotion caused by a pattern of neurons firing in the brain and reinforced through various cultural signs and social constructions. It isn't a god, and it shouldn't be one in my subjective opinion.
Yet that emotion, and others, exist. Might not love be a combination of subjective feelings and an objective state of things, such as commitment? Would it not be an aspect of Truth?

User avatar
ttruscott
Site Supporter
Posts: 11064
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:09 pm
Location: West Coast of Canada
Been thanked: 3 times

Post #5

Post by ttruscott »

imho:

"God is love", which would mean, "Love is God."

Since love is a characteristic or attribute of GOD rather than a definition of GOD, this cannot hold up. GOD is also justice, wrath and holiness. It is a figure of speech describing a person by their main characteristic, along the same lines as Hitler is evil, incarnate...

As well, the ungodly can and do love so the equation cannot hold.

Therefore God is love does not mean, love is God.

Peace, Ted
PCE Theology as I see it...

We had an existence with a free will in Sheol before the creation of the physical universe. Here we chose to be able to become holy or to be eternally evil in YHWH's sight. Then the physical universe was created and all sinners were sent to earth.

This theology debunks the need to base Christianity upon the blasphemy of creating us in Adam's sin.

User avatar
ThePainefulTruth
Sage
Posts: 841
Joined: Fri May 30, 2014 9:47 am
Location: Arizona

Post #6

Post by ThePainefulTruth »

ttruscott wrote: imho:

"God is love", which would mean, "Love is God."

Since love is a characteristic or attribute of GOD rather than a definition of GOD, this cannot hold up. GOD is also justice, wrath and holiness. It is a figure of speech describing a person by their main characteristic, along the same lines as Hitler is evil, incarnate...

As well, the ungodly can and do love so the equation cannot hold.

Therefore God is love does not mean, love is God.

Peace, Ted
I would agree, but God could be Truth (and Truth God) with knowledge, justice, love and beauty being aspects of Truth.
Truth=God

User avatar
bluethread
Savant
Posts: 9129
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:10 pm

Post #7

Post by bluethread »

ThePainefulTruth wrote:
ttruscott wrote: imho:

"God is love", which would mean, "Love is God."

Since love is a characteristic or attribute of GOD rather than a definition of GOD, this cannot hold up. GOD is also justice, wrath and holiness. It is a figure of speech describing a person by their main characteristic, along the same lines as Hitler is evil, incarnate...

As well, the ungodly can and do love so the equation cannot hold.

Therefore God is love does not mean, love is God.

Peace, Ted
I would agree, but God could be Truth (and Truth God) with knowledge, justice, love and beauty being aspects of Truth.
The grammar is not reflexive as it is in English. Adonai is love, but love is not Adonai. In the same way it is not correct to say that Truth is Adonai, because that permits Adonai to be defined by an individuals view of the Truth. Adonai is beyond all of these concepts. It is from Adonai that we get the proper definition of these concepts. That is what is being referred to in the phrase "Adonai is . . . ".

User avatar
ThePainefulTruth
Sage
Posts: 841
Joined: Fri May 30, 2014 9:47 am
Location: Arizona

Post #8

Post by ThePainefulTruth »

bluethread wrote:
ThePainefulTruth wrote:
ttruscott wrote: imho:

"God is love", which would mean, "Love is God."

Since love is a characteristic or attribute of GOD rather than a definition of GOD, this cannot hold up. GOD is also justice, wrath and holiness. It is a figure of speech describing a person by their main characteristic, along the same lines as Hitler is evil, incarnate...

As well, the ungodly can and do love so the equation cannot hold.

Therefore God is love does not mean, love is God.

Peace, Ted
I would agree, but God could be Truth (and Truth God) with knowledge, justice, love and beauty being aspects of Truth.
The grammar is not reflexive as it is in English. Adonai is love, but love is not Adonai.
We're not talking grammar, we're talking equivalency. The definition of "is" is "is". If you're saying love is not Adonai, then Adonai is not love--that is not the embodiment of love.
In the same way it is not correct to say that Truth is Adonai, because that permits Adonai to be defined by an individuals view of the Truth.


What about Adonai's definition of Truth, that is, the ultimate Truth...that Adonai is? I don't think individuals, or man, will ever know more that part of the Truth, but what we know is still part of it, and the whole Truth still exists that we can be moving toward. For me, worshiping God is pursuing the Truth. It's all we have. I don't think the word we use to refer to God changes anything if that's what you're getting at. I think referring to God as Truth is the closest we're going to get to It.

Gandhi thought about all this a while before us and said: "Nothing is or exists in reality except Truth. That is why Sat or Truth is perhaps the most important name of God. In fact it is more correct to say that Truth is God, than to say that God is Truth. But as we cannot do without a ruler or a general, such names of God as ‘King of Kings’ or ‘The Almighty’ are and will remain generally current. On deeper
thinking, however, it will be realized, that Sat or Satya is the only correct
and fully significant name for God."
Truth=God

User avatar
Talishi
Guru
Posts: 1156
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2016 11:31 pm
Location: Seattle
Been thanked: 2 times
Contact:

Post #9

Post by Talishi »

ThePainefulTruth wrote: I would agree, but God could be Truth (and Truth God) with knowledge, justice, love and beauty being aspects of Truth.
If you want to make "God" the personification of Truth, as "Sophia" is for wisdom, that's your prerogative. But there's objective reality, and truth is when our minds model that reality without contradiction.
Thank you for playing Debating Christianity & Religion!

Post Reply