Fear

[Extirpated Wildlife]

Would you say the opposite of Love is Fear? If not, could you give me an example of where you would not say the persons feelings were not brought on by fear?

[ShetlandRose]

I always thought the opposite of "love" was "hate."

ShetlandRose :angel:

P.S. I had to look up the meaning of "extirpated" (duh, small vocabulary I guess) but I applaud you on your wildlife views. :clap:

[Metanoia02]

Would you say the opposite of Love is Fear? If not, could you give me an example of where you would not say the persons feelings were not brought on by fear?
The opposite of Love is indifference.

[EdmundBlackadderTheThird]

I would say that the opposite of love is hate. Love is active as is hate, indifference is not active so I don't see how it could be the opposite. Fear is the opposite of security.

[Extirpated Wildlife]

So what are examples of love and hate that demonstrate their characteristics in ways that most people don't notice?

Maybe i am relating fear to the wrong topic. I'm relating it to doing right and wrong, in that when you do the right thing, you are doing it with a heart of love. And when you do the wrong thing, your doing it in a heart of fear, not hate.

[Metanoia02]

I would say that the opposite of love is hate. Love is active as is hate, indifference is not active so I don't see how it could be the opposite. Fear is the opposite of security.
Love is the greatest of virtues. We love because God loves us. Without God, love can not exist.

Indifference is total rejection of love. To be indifferent is to cease to Love.

We can only hate something if it is of value. If we are indifferent we are saying that we do not recognize the value of someone or something.

People can Love God. And people can hate God. But they must first realize His exisitence. Indifference refuses to recognize God's existence or value. In that state of mind, love cannot exist.

[JVAC]

So what are examples of love and hate that demonstrate their characteristics in ways that most people don't notice?

Maybe i am relating fear to the wrong topic. I'm relating it to doing right and wrong, in that when you do the right thing, you are doing it with a heart of love. And when you do the wrong thing, your doing it in a heart of fear, not hate.
I really think that you can do a "good thing" out of fear. Such as the fear of death and or imprisonment keep some from going to a life of crime.

I think when you do the 'wrong thing' you are thinking egocentricaly, that is you are thinking of yourself, or of your flesh as paul thinks of it. Whereas when you do the right thing you do it out of love, and love doesn't focus on self, it focuses on others.

It could turn out to what is more important in your opinion, doing something for yourself, or doing something for others.

(Of course this is an issue of philosophy where there isn't really a right answer so what ever floats your boat I guess.)

[SpiritPsalmist]

:)

[Metanoia02]

:)
Thanks!

[ej]

Ooh ooh I know!

It's in my signature :)

[Extirpated Wildlife]

Thanks. I appreciate all the input.

[ej]

I've been thinking about this :)

I don't think they are 'opposites' but that one is an antidote to the other.

[Crazy Liz]

I think fear is a more primal emotion. Love and hate are secondary or tertiary emotions. IOW, fear can be transformed into either love or hate. Courage is the way fear is transformed love. Self-protection transforms it into hate.

Our current culture doesn't talk about courage much.

I went to the former Yugoslavia shortly after the Bosnian war. I spent most of my time in Croatia, which was then 5 years past its war. Because my main interest was in pecemaking, I wanted to understand how hate worked. What surprised me was that the whole time I was there, I never heard any hate language at all. What I did hear was a lot of fear language. In listening to what people said about their feeligns and their behavior, I came to see that hateful actions preceded hateful emotions. Otherwise good people did hateful things out of fear. Their leaders motivated hateful actions by means of fear rhetoric (sounds a lot like the current American political rhetoric, doesn't it?). No one came forward preaching and teaching courage, like a Ghandi, for example, so everyone took the self-protection route.

When Serbs and Croatians got together to talk about what happened in the war, you could see that fear had been transformed into hate on both sides, although no one would admit to feeling hate. Each felt hated by the other, and only did what they thought they had to do to protect themselves from the other's hate.

It has been several years since this visit, but it was one of my most life-changing experiences. It has taken a long time to process these questions and understand how love, hate, fear, courage and self-protection are related.

So what is the opposite of love? I don't know exactly. But I think you are on the right track in recognizing that love requires that fear - or at least the impulse toward self-protection fear generates - be overcome.

[Phoebe]

Who coined the phrase, "people hate what they fear"?