Can Love Be Measured?

Lightkeeper · Sep 6, 2004

Atheists talk about not believing in that which cannot be measured by science. Can love be measured? Can different types of love be measured and discerned scientifically? Do you believe in love?

Ceridwen018 · Sep 6, 2004

I believe in a thing called love!
Just listen to the rhythm of my heart!

Lol. It's probably possible that 'love' can be measured scientifically...the chemical reactions in our bodies which cause it can be measured anyhow. It's not something I'm particularly interested in researching or experimenting with, though. I'd rather bask in the mystery of it all.

Lightkeeper · Sep 6, 2004

Isn't this the same reply a believer might give about God?

Pah · Sep 6, 2004

Thinking about love (God is Love) was what brought me back to Christianity from my first atheistic period. I left Christianity again when I realized his kind of love, as seen in the Old Testament and the organization of Christianity, was not the kind I thought love should be.

While both Love and God are subjective, the claims of an objective God are bogus. It's the objective God that can't be measured and the subjective only by inference. I suppose both God and Love can be measured in brain activity.

-pah-

Ceridwen018 · Sep 6, 2004

Isn't this the same reply a believer might give about God?

Lol. The difference of course, being that love can be scientifically analyzed and explained, whereas god cannot.

Lightkeeper · Sep 6, 2004

Ceridwen018 said:
Lol. The difference of course, being that love can be scientifically analyzed and explained, whereas god cannot.

Do you have the results of any studies where love was scientifically analyzed and explained? I thought you based all of your ideas on scientific evidence.

Ceridwen018 · Sep 6, 2004

Touchee, Lightkeeper. Yes, I can find you some if you'd like.

cardero · Jan 18, 2005

I want YOU to imagine a big thermometer. This thermometer is so tall that YOU literally cannot see the end of it. Now imagine that ALL the LOVE that ever existed is at the top of that thermometer (which YOU can't see). First, imagine the start of YOUR life at the beginning. Now, as YOU are discovering LOVE, imagine the red fluid rising as YOU realize these new and exciting LOVES. The red fluid never falls back; it just rises.

As YOU go through life and meet different people and experience different circumstances, the fluid keeps getting higher, if YOU desire. Not hot or cold, just higher. Acutally, LOVE cannot BE measured by human standards. If someone else's LOVE is lower on the thermometer than yours, does not make his or her LOVE inferior or underdeveloped? No. That is just where that persons LOVE is at the moment. You cannot judge LOVE.

Scuba Pete · Jan 18, 2005

Pah... all I can say is: "Me too!"

Mr Spinkles · Jan 18, 2005

Lightkeeper said:
Atheists talk about not believing in that which cannot be measured by science.

Theists put a lot of words in their mouths.

Lightkeeper said:
Can love be measured?

I don't see why not--both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Lightkeeper said:
Can different types of love be measured and discerned scientifically?

Yes, I think so.

Lightkeeper said:
Do you believe in love?

I sure do!

Lightkeeper said:
Do you have the results of any studies where love was scientifically analyzed and explained? I thought you based all of your ideas on scientific evidence.

Scientific studies on love? Tons! Here are some fascinating links on the science of love:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1043744.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/love/
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=2424049
http://www.links2love.com/scienceoflove.htm
http://www.forbes.com/maserati/singles2004/cx_mh_0624love_04single.html

Ceridwen018 · Jan 18, 2005

Wow, this is an old thread. All I can say is...I cannot personally measure my love. The mere though of such a task makes me go cross-eyed. Now, I'm not talking scientifically here, I'm talking spiritually.

Mr Spinkles · Jan 18, 2005

From the BBC article:

The Science of Love said:
In the attraction stage, a group of neuro-transmitters called 'monoamines' play an important role:<li>Dopamine - Also activated by cocaine and nicotine

<li>Norepinephrine - Otherwise known as adrenalin. Starts us sweating and gets the heart racing

Serotonin - One of love's most important chemicals and one that may actually send us temporarily insane

Well that sure does explain a few things!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/love/brain.shtml

jewscout · Jan 19, 2005

Ceridwen018 said:
Lol. The difference of course, being that love can be scientifically analyzed and explained, whereas god cannot.

Well if we are going to break down a great thing like love into something like the chemical reactions in the brain and hormones couldn't we also say by that same reasoning that an experience someone has with the divine is the same, simply a feeling brought on by the minds reaction to a particular surrounding that is nothing more than the crossing of certain chemicals and electrical charges in the brain?
I mean if we're going to say "love" is no more than chemical compounds, hormones, and electrical charges in the brain then we could say the same thing about "an experience with the Divine". Maybe every theist's experience was simply that, the mind's reaction to the surrounding environment.

linwood · Jan 19, 2005

Love can be measured on a daily basis within our own surroundings.

You can see the affects of love and show there could be no other cause to falsify.

You cannot do this with a deity.

Mr Spinkles · Jan 19, 2005

jewscout-- I'm not sure how trying to understand love degrades it. How is trying to understand "a great thing like love" the same as saying it's "nothing more than the crossing of certain chemicals...in the brain"? Can't it be both chemicals in the brain AND a 'great thing'? What's so horrible about chemicals?

I, for one, found the articles in the links I posted fascinating. After all, a mystery is no fun if we don't take a look at the clues.

cardero · Jan 19, 2005

Jewscout, Mr._Spinkles,

I just told mrscarrdero that I hormonally secrete Serotonin for you with all my chemically compounded Norepinephrine and I got my face smacked and was forced to sleep by myself on the couch. Now I am not going to play the blame game at this point but talk it over amongst yourselves because somebody owes me.

jewscout · Jan 19, 2005

Mr_Spinkles said:
jewscout-- I'm not sure how trying to understand love degrades it. How is trying to understand "a great thing like love" the same as saying it's "nothing more than the crossing of certain chemicals...in the brain"? Can't it be both chemicals in the brain AND a 'great thing'? What's so horrible about chemicals? I, for one, found the articles in the links I posted fascinating. After all, a mystery is no fun if we don't take a look at the clues.

I just like to think of love as something more than things going on in my brain, i know that it is but that, to me at least, takes all the feeling out of the experience. Just as an experience with the Divine i might have could be explained in the same manner, to me it takes away from the experience. To say that the way any of us feel about someone is based on chemical reactions, i think at least, takes away from the meaning of being in love. If it's based on chemicals and hormones, then science can create a pill that can, in essense, make you fall out of love by "balancing you out".

Sunstone · Jan 19, 2005

"I was just astonished," he said. "When we compared the statistics, we found it predicts which couples will divorce with more than 90% accuracy."

One odd thing about the ability of scientists to predict which couples will divorce with such great accuracy is that their predictions are NOT based on the common assumptions people make about the causes of divorce. Yet, the scientists are highly accurate in who will (or will not) divorce. What they look for is a five to one or better ratio of possitive comments to negative ones in the conversations of couples. That seems such a simple thing to look for, but it works -- the results are 90% accurate.

jewscout · Jan 19, 2005

linwood said:
Love can be measured on a daily basis within our own surroundings.

You can see the affects of love and show there could be no other cause to falsify.

You cannot do this with a deity.

On the premise that love is a reaction of chemicals and hormones in the brain, one could say that an experience with the Divine is the same thing and so can be quantified in the same manner.

jewscout · Jan 19, 2005

carrdero said:
Jewscout, Mr._Spinkles,

I just told mrscarrdero that I hormonally secrete Serotonin for you with all my chemically compounded Norepinephrine and I got my face smacked and was forced to sleep by myself on the couch. Now I am not going to play the blame game at this point but talk it over amongst yourselves because somebody owes me.

uhhhhhhh:areyoucra
hey i'm saying love is more than just horomones and chemicals so don't look at me

hehe

Can Love Be Measured?

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