what is love?

[atheistjew]

love is powerful. It does things to you that you wouldn't have thought possible it can make you into something big, or it can tear you down into a pile of rubble. certainly, love is powerful. I hate people; most of them at least, we invent stupid social norms to bend to, unnecessarily invent stereotypes and rationalize any kind of lose or pain as "character building. we're also incredibly stupid. however one of the most annoying things we do is raise something as simple as love to a deep, philosophical and mysterious level. beyond even teenage naivety.

now let's be clear on two things: first, love is a biochemical reaction in the brain; comprised of dopamine, vasopressin, Oxycontin, serotonin, phenethylamine(PEA) and Norepinephrine. secondly, love can be a significant factor in your life, it can have no involvement what so ever, however to think it as anything more than a giant chemical orgy is rather absurd.

NOTE: this isn't mean to provoke a stream of hateful comments: rather to provoke a discussion. contrarianism.

[SoulRiser]

Pain is a biochemical reaction in the brain.
Happiness is a biochemical reaction in the brain.
Anger is a biochemical reaction in the brain.
Hatred is a biochemical reaction in the brain.
Everything is technically a biochemical reaction in the brain.

But the biochemical reactions in the brain are none of those things, they are also not what causes them, they are just what causes us to physically experience those things. Sure you could technically explain everything down to chemicals in the brain, but why the hell would you want to? That just makes it sound incredibly boring and lame.

Yes, humans are stupid. Humans make up all sorts of stupid social rules and crap. I don't care for any of that stuff. Love is one of the few things that's actually interesting, and I don't mean being "in love", whatever the hell that means. I'm more interested in the unconditional type love that just never goes away no matter what. But it seems very few people are into that sort of thing. I really don't get the appeal of being "in love". As far as I can tell, that's just hormones/chemicals making a person seem far faaar more awesome than they really are. I don't want that shit. But that's not the same thing as love.