So What About Love?

So then there is love.

Some people who do not believe in God are consistent and do not believe in love either.  Basically they lack primary evidence.  In fact, I would assert that there is a direct correlation between losing faith in love and losing faith in God.  Yet for many people it is at this point that they live with the inconsistency.  We cannot see God; we cannot prove God in the laboratory.  They find that to believe in God is a stretch, but they believe in love.  Yet we cannot see love.  We cannot prove love.  The only available evidence is secondary.  Again, like God, there is no primary evidence.  However, when we love someone, we are more certain of this than virtually anything else.

It is love that reminds us that there is a knowing beyond reason.

Moreover, I would assert that we are born to love.  Children love unconditionally.  We can beat the love out of a person, but it is impossible to beat it into someone.  Just like faith, love is intrinsic.  It is not taught or transferred ... it just is.  We cannot make a person love us.  God only knows how many of us have tried to.  There might be nothing more painful than loving someone who does not love us in return.

For love to exist it does not even require reciprocation.

We can, in fact, live in a loveless environment and still love.  Children typically still love their parents when tragically their parents do not love them.  If love was something that developed over time, it would not be so.  It is certainly not the result of becoming a mature adult.  In fact, frequently it seems to be the opposite, where adulthood becomes the enemy of love.  I am not saying that love does not deepen with maturity but what I am saying is that the impetus for love is within us from the start.  We are all born with both faith and love -- not to mention hope.