Do we love because we subconsciously crave motivation/meaning, or because love is our nature; our very ground?

I believe we love because it is our nature, an innate part of us, a force that cannot and will not be denied. How else to explain how a person who even when they have been hurt by it, will again fall in love despite the pain experienced before? Something drives us to feel an deep and abiding love for others.

No human relationship exists without it. Love of parents for children, love between family and friends, and romantic love. Often we may not know how to express it properly or know how to react to it depending on our family or cultural background, but when we let down the barriers we may have built up around ourselves to protect ourselves, and allow ourselves to be vulnerable, when true love comes our way, we are ready to receive and give in return.

Love has inspired music, works of art, architecture, I believe it is our very ground.

Beautiful songs you posted, here are three I would like to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvcNtoHwd6Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSw6NT76n1c&feature...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZwJqaeK9js&feature...

Ask yourself these question.

What is the subconscious even capable of, is our subconscious capable of wanting love or meaning?

Are you consciously loving or are you loving like people do when they are dreaming(with no actual control)? Meaning do you make a decision.

Can you choose not to love?

And what is the subconscious anyway.

I learned in biology that our bodies are all the product of evolution. I have this theory (though its probably not that original), that since we are the products of evolution, that our subconscious wouldn't develop the search for meaning since it is a hinderance to survival. In doing this I've also come to the conclusion that that It seems we are able to make choices because seem to have our person (religious groups call it a soul) associated with us and we are not just a body. In making this conclusion, it is through our person/soul that we are able to choose to love? This is when we have true love.

Attraction or the desire to have sex with the opposite sex on the other hand can be partly your subconsious hardwired to produce offspring.

I am not a christian nor a muslim but the best way to show ones love to others is by our example in our lives. Too many preach love but never show it as living proof. No wonder so many have turned away from religion because of this hypocrisy. No matter what religion we are, we need to openly show what we teach to convince others by our actions. To Truth Hurts: Just a word on your understanding. Jesus never said not to eat pork. Neither did He ever mention about dressing modestly. That was from a later writer. Mohammad wasn't after Christ's time. He came long before Christ was born. Check your own history.

Love serves the function of binding together a pack.. Be it a family unit, a mate, offspring, or what have you.

It seems fairly commonplace to assume love is a distinctly human characteristic. If you ask me it's a distinctly animal one. It boils down to a general urge to protect and provide that rewards us with pleasure and punishes us with discomfort. It's the very picture of an instinct.

While a timber wolf may not be able to conceptualize why they love their mate or offspring, they have the urge to protect and provide for their pack without question. It's a distinctly pack animal trait that serves a biological function. This doesn't make it any less rewarding though.

I think that on the subconscious level, our egos feast not only on the love for another, but on the fear of being unloved, of being left behind, of thinking we "need" the attachment to feel whole. So that's the subconsious thing.

But on a different level, a spiritual level if you will, love was always there, like a defavlt setting on a computer. That's what makes it possible to feel love at all. Its not like you need to "switch" it on: it's always BEEN on, like a computer application- we only notice it's running when we go to use it.

I can't really say I know what love is exactly.

Every time I think I got it figured out,

it evolves.

It morphs.

It changes.

Almost like it doesn't want me to understand it.

Or more likely, I do it to myself because deep down,

I really don't want to figure it out.

I mean, I know it has to do with chemicals in my brain,

but controlling those chemicals at will?

I'm not sure I want that much conscious control.

I don't think I'm responsible enough for that.

I'd probably become addicted to it or something..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXo3NFqkaRM&feature...

Nice question.

Its partly both i guess. More i think its an in-built ability rather than as somethng we want. That's why even the most cruelest person would love to be cruel ;p

Whatevr it is, love is beautiful.

Love u too :)

Lovely answers...Titou, Bronwen, Matt, Ren...EVERYONE!

I was particularly touched by Matt's answer, because of his use of the concept of pack...

I just lost my elder pack leader Aussie Shepherd to kidney disease, and I cannot stop grieving...

He was loved not just by me, but by everyone who knew him...

He lost an eye in a fight with his brother over a female he dearly loved...

And so could no longer compete as a show dog...

And I happened to come along, wanting just such a dog.

Years later his beloved, too, was to be adopted out, and I was asked if I would like to take her, and of course I did...

She and Graham Bear got to live out the rest of her years together in an enviable state of unaffected comfortableness. When Nurse died, Graham lay for three weeks beside the spot where she preferred to sleep...

I often wonder if our concept of love is as skewed as any of our concepts about God...

Love seems to be so much more and better than the little we know or can imagine to write about it...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10806277@N08/54644089...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10806277@N08/54644301...

I don't consider true Love to be natural. It is purely Human. It is an attempt to rise above the violent and lonely death that nature gives to all her creatures.

Love is our nature..it is in our soul. We are made out of love and we love not for getting anything but to give everything that we posses..Love is the most beautiful feeling that we are blessed with.