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What is hate?
- Thread starter osgart
- Start date
I think that the Bible's definition of what to hate is the correct one.....
Amos 5:15...
"Hate what is bad, and love what is good,
Let justice prevail in the city gate."
Nowhere does God tell us to hate people...only to hate what they do if it against God's law.
We are even to "love our enemies" (Matthew 5:43-45)...so there is no excuse for doing harm to a single soul.
If there is judgment and penalty, God will see to it.
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
What of human laws? Man's sense of justice in governing ourselves? Would you say that there is necessity in governing people through human law?
Hate is an incredibly strong and complex word, in my view. I think some folks do feel justified, in what I would term hate, but they wouldn't. I have great difficulty in the phrase, hate the sin, not the sinner. A truck driver is a truck driver BECAUSE he drives trucks. A thief simply wouldn't be a thief if he didn't steal. The action determines it. So I fail to understand how you can separate the two, and yet many people do, especially with regard to homosexuality.
I don't think not living up to one's standards determines hate. Lots of folks can't live up to another's standards.
I think the cause of hate is ignorance, called anava (ego) in Hinduism. Most haters I know or have heard of, haven't gotten out much, or associated with folks they hate. I think that goes a long ways to decreasing it.
In degrees, everyone at least gets annoyed at times, although I wouldn't call that hate.
It's also a word that's tossed about a lot without due discretion, accusing folks of hating you.
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I suspect there are numerous folks who feel hatred but it is not a conscious choice. They feel what they feel and may not know exactly why.
Sure they will come up with an excuse to justify what they feel but it is probably not the actual reason.
For example, I hate chocolate I really, really hate it. I don't know why. Something in my head says this is nasty stuff.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
I don't use hate because I never disliked someone so much that (or dislike people at all) that I would use that word to describe him as a person. I never use the term hate, but if I did, it would be a person's behavior not the person himself.
I kind of think so. If people don't live up to our standards, we may have some ill regards about them. Which makes it hard to build trust and love if the other person has to live to your standards in order to be able to trust them.
Another way to see it is when someone feels threatened (say they're offended), their "animal like" reaction would be vengeance or ill feelings. A modern version of killing your enemy. The brain doesn't know why it's threatened and what century it is in. So, hate could be a defense mechanism. Awareness and desire to change to make better relationships is hard if that person wants to do it and sees a need to even if it means looking at one's faults and forgiveness to do so.
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Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
For example, I hate chocolate I really, really hate it. I don't know why. Something in my head says this is nasty stuff.
WHAT! You hate chocolate?!
I'm not your friend anymore
In one frame of reference it is. In another hate/love are opposite of indifference. This is the sense where hate and (ordinary) love are emotional energy and indifference is the absence of energy.
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
I kind of see ego as false pride, or perhaps self righteous stubbornness. That to me is the cause of unjustified hate or hatred. I agree with that.
I also make the distinction of hating what a person becomes and not the person.
I find the toughest love is to love your enemies.
To hate what is bad is unavoidable to me.
Vinyaka made a good point about trying to understand those you might hate. I think that if we understood people better and make that extra effort then we might not be so quick to hate.
To me there are two kinds of hate. Justified and without excuse. I tend to be objective about things and not be over emotional.
I don't see the point in living with hate and not trying to introspect to rectify it.
I also make the distinction of hating what a person becomes and not the person.
I find the toughest love is to love your enemies.
To hate what is bad is unavoidable to me.
Vinyaka made a good point about trying to understand those you might hate. I think that if we understood people better and make that extra effort then we might not be so quick to hate.
To me there are two kinds of hate. Justified and without excuse. I tend to be objective about things and not be over emotional.
I don't see the point in living with hate and not trying to introspect to rectify it.
I hate any number of things.
God actually gave humans laws to govern their everyday behaviors, covering most of the things that might spring up to cause a conflict of some description.....in relationships with one another....how they interact when conflict is experienced....and how to settle things peacefully. How to maintain humility (probably the most difficult thing when you are angry)
Laws are only there to guide people in what they do in response to a situation....it doesn't deal with the steps a human mind goes through in the processing of injustices and actions that are perceived to be done out of spite.
Justification then swings into gear, and before we know it an act of murder can take place in the heat of the moment.
This is why I love the teachings of Jesus. He showed us what a chain reaction can do in leading us to commit a sin.
e.g. he said about adultery (Matthew 5:27-28) Jesus showed that certain behaviors can lead to actions if you don't nip them in the bud.
James also said something very important about this chain reaction....
James 1:13-15...
"When under trial, let no one say: “I am being tried by God.” For with evil things God cannot be tried, nor does he himself try anyone. 14 But each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin; in turn sin, when it has been carried out, brings forth death."
There it is. A Christian should be governed by their conscience. They know God's laws, but in many cases they ignore the steps that lead to wrongdoing. Avoidance is better than regret...
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
Is conscience something we are born with, or learned through the Bible?
Basic conscience is hard to deny. Yet some people insist there is no objective basis for conscience. I couldn't disagree more with that.
I see a truth!
Do you see that humanity is in control of their actions? Or does it take Divine intervention? Perhaps meeting God on God's terms?
What distinguishes a jw from all other christians?
Don't you just hate that?
Howard Is
Lucky Mud
I experience hate. I wish I didn’t, but I would be a liar to claim I didn’t.
The distress underlying the hate I feel is very complex and personal, and not quickly or easily expressed. Suffice to say, I was the victim of extreme narcissistic abuse.
Just what that means is beyond the scope of posts on this forum.
Narcissistic Partner Abuse has been found to cause physical brain damage in the victims.
It is much more than just an unhappy relationship.
It caused pronounced physical, emotional and psychological changes in me which are, simply put, catastrophic.
I hate the woman who did this to me. I hate her more than I could possibly express.
I didn’t even attempt the Buddhist practices such as tong len, because the hatred is so intense.
I think I would kill her if I had the chance. At least, I find myself imagining it.
If I did kill her, I would feel no guilt. It would feel like I had rid the world of a toxic curse.
The distress underlying the hate I feel is very complex and personal, and not quickly or easily expressed. Suffice to say, I was the victim of extreme narcissistic abuse.
Just what that means is beyond the scope of posts on this forum.
Narcissistic Partner Abuse has been found to cause physical brain damage in the victims.
It is much more than just an unhappy relationship.
It caused pronounced physical, emotional and psychological changes in me which are, simply put, catastrophic.
I hate the woman who did this to me. I hate her more than I could possibly express.
I didn’t even attempt the Buddhist practices such as tong len, because the hatred is so intense.
I think I would kill her if I had the chance. At least, I find myself imagining it.
If I did kill her, I would feel no guilt. It would feel like I had rid the world of a toxic curse.
MonkeyFire
Well-Known Member
It doesnt necessarily have a purpose, but I wouldnt let people destroy the existence of non-violence in order to save the so called would be evils who claim they are only doomed because God wouldnt extend his omnipotence to them.
Some believe there is no peace without HATE, aka Hades, but I understand that if hes not peaceful he will rest in peace, to our inner peace.
Yes, but it isnt necessarily perfect
I certainly love hate, but idk or not if that means I love to hate.
Conscience is our moral compass....inborn.....the Bible is simply a guide for that God-given faculty.
Indeed, it is almost impossible to deny. Only those who deny a Creator would deny something so obvious to us.
Yes, humans are completely in charge of their actions. We have free will and are accountable to God for the laws that we break. Ignorance of the law is no excuse......to illustrate....when the Nuremberg Trials were held after the Nazi's were ousted from power, the SS guards and others who carried out the heinous orders of the Nazi hierarchy were convicted on the basis that they ignored their conscience. Even though they may have been threatened with death themselves, that was was no excuse for the deaths they inflicted without any compassion or hesitation. My conscience would not allow me to kill another human being in order to keep myself alive....that would be a slow mental death in carrying the weight of that on my conscience for the rest of my life.
We are no part of Christendom. That means that we took every one of Christendom's doctrines and put them under the microscope of the scriptures to see if they were valid....none of them came up as truth....but borrowed from pagan sources.
The "apostasy" that was foretold by Jesus and his apostles happened so long ago, that people in later centuries thought that the "weeds" were the "wheat"....(Matthew 13:24-30; 36-42) but history attests to the fact that the rot had set in very early in the piece....right after the death of the apostles. (2 Peter 2:1-3)
We reject the trinity....immortality of the soul....hellfire....and going to either heaven or hell according to the way we lived this life.....none of that is true. There is no adoration of Mary, no infant baptism, no repetitive prayers or rituals, no incense, no holy water no titles no distinctive clothing and no idols .
We are Bible students who try very hard to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.....all of them, not just the convenient ones. We will not participate in wars or acts of violence...and we will not support any political party, for any reason. We will stay right out of that mess. It won't make us popular with the patriots, but then we don't expect to be.
(John 15:18-21) Jesus did not support any of those teachings that the church adopted from pagan sources, but unless you study the Bible, you would never know their origins. People have trusted the church to tell them the truth, but they never did. That trust, which is still in evidence, though in less measure in an religiously inured population, was sadly misplaced. Those who bravely stood up and identified the rot were silenced as they had been all through history. The real heretics were calling their objectors, heretics. It was just a continuation of the Jews' treatment of Jesus all over again.
Any wonder that he lamented their sad and sorry history, because they keep repeating it.
(Matthew 23:37-39)
stvdv
Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
IF I have a "hate" thought, I get rid of it (I hateFor example, I hate chocolate I really, really hate it. I don't know why. Something in my head says this is nasty stuff.
"hate thoughts").
Hate is extreme anger towards a entity for a personal wrong tied strongly to the haters ego.
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
So the ego is what? Ego to me is a false sense of superiority based on the success or skill one has attained to. It's a false standard!
For me the true standard is the nature of one's intentions that makes everyone equal. A good nature desires only good for others and self.
So true success empowers others to live a good life.
Unjustified hate is to cut off the good natured without cause to do so.
Unjustified hatred is always an existential threat.