As yourself?
I do.
But its predated by 300years, by the Epicurean, law of reciprocity, which i believe in even more.

"I love Mankind!" declared Linus of Peanuts. "It's people I can't stand."

I think it's a good idea to have general feelings of good-will toward others and to treat others with basic decency and dignity...unless and until they demonstrate through their actions that their intentions toward you and/or others are injurious and that they have no such attitude of love or concern for others. In such cases, "handle with care" and "approach with caution" apply.

When speaking of all of humanity in general, I can't see how the word "love" can be used without diluting it as a concept to the point of complete irrelevancy.

Would it make any sense to say that you "love" Hitler, Mao, Stalin or Che Guevara? Are they "fellow men" who should be loved?

Some of the greatest passages in the New Testament are where Jesus quite vehemently attacks people who harm children, pharisees who miss the point, and money changers in the temple.

I don't think it is possible to love mankind without hating, or viewing with revulsion, some people.

In many ways I don't. If a person is inclined to be an introvert, then they shy away from babysitting other peoples obnoxious teenagers in a Title 1 school. I would never want to be a police officer in the Ghetto or emt either.

If a person loves everyone all the time, then they would want to be in the lime light all the time. They make a great doormat!

When I was in high school and college there was a touring company called "Up With People" who visited high schools and university campuses and sang inspirational songs about loving everyone. Very popular.

This motivated many, especially my fellow BYU students to braggingly proclaim,"I"m a people person!" Usually accompanied by that smug arrogance of a Mormon apostle. The air of superiority.

What I thought then, and still do, is that if you love EVERYBODY, then being loved by you is nothing special. How hollow could love be?

I love deeply those I know. I am loved deeply by people who know me well.

I don't love the "fellow man" that is still legislating to make it legal to haul your gay kids to conversion therapy. I don't love the "fellow man" that swindles the elderly. I don't love the "fellow man" who, oh, you get the idea.

My love is really something and when I give my heart, it really means something.

I will treat people who deserve it with respect, and even give the benefit of the doubt, and, I will wish the best for them, but no one tells me who to love. I fly higher than that.

Truly loving means knowing how to disdain as well.

"Truly loving means knowing how to disdain as well." Well said, Done & Done. This has been one of (many) life's great lessons--especially in dealing with abusive Mormons and Mormon family members.

This debate depends on what the definition of the word "love" is. Did God so "love the world" that he flooded it, and killed all but a handful of people and creatures? Good point, about the money-changers and pharisees. But, this same God loved evil Joseph Smith enough to make him a prophet? It's all myth, anyway....

I love whom I will love, and I always start fresh with newborn babies, believing that human beings are basically GOOD. Love--especially for my children and grandchildren--drives my life. I believe in Love! I mean, the unconditional, mother-love, no-strings-attached kind of love. I loved my parents, my soulmate, and my husband like that. I have loved my good friends, too, with all their quirks and mistakes, to the end.

One of the reasons I separated myself from the Mormon cult, years before I officially resigned, was that Love was not taught there, and not practiced there. "Love" was held up as a prize to be EARNED through obedience. Now, Russ and the Mormons are actually preaching AGAINST unconditional love.

The Epicurean law of reciprocity, Hillel's "That which is hateful to you, do not do to another", and The Golden Rule are all similar. I follow that, and balance it with Wally Prince's "handle with care and approach with caution" attitude.

Nice. And, besides what you said, "Love" was held up as a prize to be EARNED through obedience. Now, Russ and the Mormons are actually preaching AGAINST unconditional love. . . ."

Even earned love has become a moving target in the Mormon church. It's like the carrot dangled before the mule and nothing more.

What Mormons don't realize is they are cheating themselves. I don't want their "love" anyway and they have a nerve using the word at all.

They throw out the real flowers and replace them with plastic ones.

Interesting that you use a gendered and arguably sexist descriptor (fellow men), when all three versions in the NT are inclusive and gender-neutral, and well known: love your neighbor as yourself.

Fits right in with the second class status of women in mormondom.

No I don't believe in that rule.

Its impossible to love everyone. For real? Seriously?

Even when I was young, four chicks a day tops.

El ghawd del New Testament did say to love thy neighbor as thyself. What if you're a cutter?

Also, when he was busy being Old Testament ghawd, he remarked, as one of the items listed on his Top Ten commandments, "Do not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

This commandment has always perplexed me. Does it mean that you can bear false witness about any and all who aren't your neighbors? There are some serious implications therein!

Does Jesus love his brother, Lucifer? If not, why not? Lucifer didn't do anything more than disagree with their dad, so should Jesus be all butt-hurt about that?

Anyway, I see ample basis for a ghawd-sanctioned point of view that not all our non-neighbors deserve even automatic respect, much less love. I think if ghawd has no problem shutting me out of Super Celestial Glory just because we don't see eye to eye, I should not be judged for taking that same basic stance anent my fellow human beings.

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, who am I?" -- Hillel, a guy who believed the "love your neighbor as yourself" was a commandment from God.

"Love your neighbor as yourself" raises a lot of questions about what it even means. Hillel is also famous for having said "That which is hateful to you, do not do to another. This is the sum of the Torah; the rest is commentary. Now, go study [the commentary]." If one makes some kind of existential commitment towards living out "loving your neighbor as yourself," the path for how to do that is not immediately obvious. Still, I consider love an existential imperative. Still working on how to live that out with integrity and balance; I'm glad I have fellow humans also working on it. We're studying the commentary together.

I was unaware that “logos, logic, math, super symmetry and singularity” and/or “the immutable laws that govern the universe” have commanded anything...

Stuff like this is why religion inevitably breeds guilt and hypocrisy

Elder Oaks would qualify that: “It depends. Are you gay?”

The church changed Jesus' first law of the gospel, from love to obedience.

Love fellow men ?
But what about the women ?

Depends....

Loving the Q15 is a tough one for me, but I try to love all of God’s creatures. Roaches, rats, snakes, invertebrates, and slime molds. Then it’s one extra step to love the Q15.

The problem is in the multiple meanings of the word "love."

"Love" as in "caring"....Yes.

My personal belief is that we all, individually, have the responsibility of caring for, and protecting, all sentient beings, in whatever ways are appropriate to us and to them.

In a larger sense, I personally believe that this also applies to our planet, and to our solar system, to the extent that we have an effect on either of them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2019 10:47AM by Tevai.