Thursday, May 16, 2013

On The Concept of Love and Religion


Friends, I have to admit, as I write these words, that my spirits are rather low, maybe it is the lack of sleep, or maybe my brain trying to process the truly unimaginable amount of data it received in the past few days.  This kind of, let’s call it depression, though unreasonable and illogical, is much needed, as it forces my mind to focus on that which I care the most about. This blog is meant as a preamble to my next entry which will come out in only a couple of days, I assure you.  For today though, let us focus on the topic of love: unrestricted, unreasonable affection, meant, traditionally to be experienced between only two people. As I keep thinking about the reasons for religion, and family structure where a person, who is unrelated to a family core other than through affection such as a family friend is automatically called an uncle or an aunt, or a brother or sister by those whose affection is closest, how do we define love? And do we have to define true passionate, selfless love, as something that can only be experienced between two people?
It is with heavy regret that I admit that I used to think in such manner, I believed that love – as it grows over time between people- cannot be shared with multiple partners, and I will also add that the consumption of that love need not necessarily be physical, though it may be, so long as no party is hurt or harmed by such methods of consumption. I have been thinking about the need for religion, and what it brings to the table, about the true happiness found in both monogamous and polyamorous marriages. I have tried to understand why most accepted religions require a sacrificial love for many people. My friends, I believe the answer lies right in front of us: human beings, as all social animals, need to feel a sense of community, though, through the complexity and range of the emotions we share, we try to identify with different people. It is my belief that theists, in general, feel a need to be loved so greatly by someone other than their partner that they need to create another being, far beyond their reach in order to express that love and still follow the conventions of their culture. They feel the need to express a deep love, much stronger than the one they can give a mere mortal, though all that needs to be done is to love others as well.
Now, there are going to be critics of this entry, stating that I encourage “perversions” and I am not truly in love of my wife. That is completely irrationally wrong, as I have stated before, physical consumption is not necessarily needed, though it may. There are others who would say that human beings are capable of truly terrible things, such as murder, theft, rape, gratuitous amounts of violence that could, and does hurt us as a species. But my response to that is that we need not focus on the negative, I am a true humanist who believes greatly in the human potential for good. I believe that because we are capable of such horrid things, we are also capable of tremendously wonderful actions and emotions. However, we limit ourselves because our concepts of normalcy are heavily enforced by our ever growing western cultural norms. It is great time, my friends, we stop lying to ourselves and start exploring our potential, we have a deep emotional connection to other human beings, I am not saying to have sex with everyone you encounter (though I do not believe there is something necessarily wrong with that), I am saying to attempt to bond intellectually, and emotionally with other human beings, so that all parties involved may become better people.

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