• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

What does "God is love" mean?

Thistle

Thistle

Member
God is love because, in combination with "the lord works in mysterious ways", it's an excuse to justify pretty much anything his followers do in his name. A bit like "we're protecting democracy" while at the same time outlawing "dissident" opinions.
 
Shuddhasattva

Shuddhasattva

Well-Known Member
Love and love are different. love is derived from Love, but it is not complete or it is only a small reflection.
Click to expand...
Could we say a distorted reflection, where the distortions consist of egoism?

When we say that God is Love, we are not referring to the chemical reaction in the brain that makes you feel overwhelmed with affection or attachment or obsession
Click to expand...
.

While I agree with the rest of, and the essence, of your post, and consider it a gem in thread, I would advise caution on assertions like this in that it succumbs to the matter/spirit duality that is revealed as illusory or provisional in the oneness of god.

Can we say that the limited egoic consciousness, enshrined in the biophysical matrix that is the human body, processes physical information (on multiple levels, all the way from the DNA to particular neurochemicals) through that matrix (ie, brain, supporting components) thus generating individuated, biologically bounded, culturally bounded, selfishly bounded consciousness which can, through modifying the action of those same chemicals & the matrix itself (ie, rewiring the brain's neuroplasticity etc. and changing the configuration of neurochemicals - the role of the pineal gland is a major, tantalizing hint neuroscience is currently exploring) realize its nondifference from the universal consciousness which requires no material components, no moving parts, batteries neither included nor needed. :p

What I'm getting at here is that the Love you speak of, while independent of that biochemical matrix, has for its constituent consciousnesses (us) dependence on that matrix for access and unity with that Love, and its expression on the physical plane through our embodied lives.

And thus, understanding the link/oneness of these chemical components and Love is crucial in advancing towards a better tomorrow.

In this way, the disciples of Love can work with, mutually benefiting with the materialists and scientists. Science has much to offer to the Infinite.

Love, put simply, is Unity. On a spiritual platform, we believe that all things are part of the One. Each individual is one piece of a great puzzle, so to speak. In reality, there is no actual duality and what we see to be duality is classified as Maya (illusion).

An aspect of Realisation/Enlightenment is understanding and perceiving this Oneness with all things. We are not at that stage of spiritual development now, but our every experience brings us closer. Every time we have an experience or come into contact with something/someone, we form a perceived connection. The more we have experience and contact with that same thing, the more it becomes sensed as a part of our own self. Therefore in life our love is ever expanding.

Love then is the growing awareness of the existence of something else and the awareness in itself is the growing perception that this something else is a part of you. When we love someone or something, it is a reflection that this person or thing has a close connection with your self. The closest connection feels so much that the individual is part of you that if they left you, it can feel that you are no longer 'whole'.

When one reaches true Realisation, a complete perception of reality, there is the same deepest sense of connection with all things and therefore, you live in Love. There can never be a sense of loss or disconnection because on a spiritual platform you are eternally connected. Separation is only an illusion that can exist while we live in ignorance.

Love is the goal. Love is Unity. Love is Reality. And Love is God, as God is the Whole.
Click to expand...
Beautiful. I am speechless in agreement :)
 
Last edited:
chinu

chinu

chinu
Gjallarhorn said:
Which means there is no difference between God and the release of endorphins in the brain. Therefore God is a chemical process.
Click to expand...
If you mean that releasing of endorphins in the brain happens due to love, Than with example can you tell when and how this happens ?

Am sure you are getting something wrong because this chemical process never happens because of love. :)
 
Gjallarhorn

Gjallarhorn

N'yog-Sothep
chinu said:
If you mean that releasing of endorphins in the brain happens due to love, Than with example can you tell when and how this happens ?

Am sure you are getting something wrong because this chemical process never happens because of love. :)
Click to expand...
The chemical process causes love, so you are right. God is caused by a chemical reaction.
 
The Sum of Awe

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
Staff member
Premium Member
Sir Doom said:
Okay, so how do we know its that way instead of:

When we love something our brain releases chemicals to create pleasure.

Do you see where my confusion comes in?
Click to expand...

It just wouldn't make sense to feel love before pleasure.

Madhuri said:
I know, but what seems more logical to you?
Click to expand...

I'm not a pantheist so I can't really say, sorry :D

Rocky S said:
If you are referring to 1john 4:8 were it says God is love, I can give you a christian perspective on this if it is ok . Through my foolishness I will try to explain it. It is a little bit more simpler that. There is context here in 1 john 4:8 God is love must be understood as God is light, God is Good, or God is a consuming fire, and other statement about Him. It does not mean embodiment like love is God,it pertains to his nature. Now in it context this is a twofold teaching. When one reads the versus before and after it. First it is saying if one does not love others he is not of God because God is Love (pertains to nature).Then in the next verse it goes on to explain what God is love means or the love of God. In essence John is talking about Gods' redemptive plan for man as it says in the following verses. That His love is made known or manifested because God sent his only begotten son in the world, that we might live through him. Then it makes another statement"Herein is love not that we loved God,but that He loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation(sin offering) for our sins. It really parallels john 3:16, and we all know that verse. It also goes on to say if God so loved us we also ought to love one another. So really it pertains to nature. And His redemptive plan for man, that's all. Not that love is God or A=B or B=A or that God is chemicals released from the brain. Again, obviously this is from a christian perspective.
Click to expand...

Ah I see, thank you.

Prophet said:
Love is the force that connects all life as one, and is thus, the best literal definition of God.
Click to expand...

So love is an object, how is it an emotion then?
 
doppelganger

doppelganger

Through the Looking Glass
If love is the dissolution of the certainty of perceived forms (particularly the forms of self-identity/ego) then "God is love" simply means that "God" points to the experience of transcending self-identity and its various attachments.
 
idav

idav

Being
Premium Member
The Sum of Awe said:
1)If God is love, love is God, for mathematically if A=B then B=A, unless A is a subset of B, but can God be a subset of something, I thought he was the all of it?


2) How can God be a release of chemicals from the brain. Whether love comes from the soul (which science disagrees but many believe that), or from the brain, it is a process, not a thing, because love is created, even if it does come from the soul. Can God be a process?


3) Does it mean God is loving? If so, it is a bit confusing to say X is Y, if X is doing Y. You must say it as "God is loving" because just because I am walking, doesn't mean I'm walk.
Click to expand...
Love is one of the keys to understanding oneness. Love is advocated in many religions for that very reason. Even in the NT love is stated to sum up the reason for gods law. To be one with god is to love unconditionally. I'd even say that love could be the very reason there is something rather than nothing.
 
Sir Doom

Sir Doom

Cooler than most of you
The Sum of Awe said:
It just wouldn't make sense to feel love before pleasure.
Click to expand...

Okay, maybe I can illustrate this better with an example. Probably not, but I'll try anyway.

When scientists have introduced synthetic versions of the chemicals associated with love to certain mammals (voles in the article I read), they would attach themselves to the first compatible mate they find.

This seems exactly like tapping your knee with the little triangle mallet to test your reflexes.

In both cases we are forcing the reaction.

So, just as it makes no sense to say:

Normal leg movement is our brain tricking us into thinking we've been hit by mallets.

It also makes no sense to say:

The normal release of chemicals is our brain tricking us into thinking we're in love.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top