Your thoughts on prayer

Sue, altruism within the group has great survival value.

In our distant past, groups of pre-humans who cared for and looked after other members of the tribe would have survived better than groups that did not. So the tendency to be altruistic has positive survival value.

There is indeed, Wolf.

http://www.oxytocin.org/oxytoc/love-science.html

Worth reading the whole article.

I find the article mainly refers to sex John, and as any woman will tellyou,

there is a HUGE difference between sex and love.

No, Wolf. It covers attraction and romantic love, too. 

Lust, of course, involves a craving for sex. Jim Pfaus, a psychologist at Concordia University, in Montreal, says the aftermath of lustful sex is similar to the state induced by taking opiates. A heady mix of chemical changes occurs, including increases in the levels of serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin and endogenous opioids (the body's natural equivalent of heroin). “This may serve many functions, to relax the body, induce pleasure and satiety, and perhaps induce bonding to the very features that one has just experienced all this with”, says Dr Pfaus.

Then there is attraction, or the state of being in love (what is sometimes known as romantic or obsessive love). This is a refinement of mere lust that allows people to home in on a particular mate. This state is characterised by feelings of exhilaration, and intrusive, obsessive thoughts about the object of one's affection. Some researchers suggest this mental state might share neurochemical characteristics with the manic phase of manic depression. Dr Fisher's work, however, suggests that the actual behavioural patterns of those in love — such as attempting to evoke reciprocal responses in one's loved one — resemble obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

That raises the question of whether it is possible to “treat” this romantic state clinically, as can be done with OCD. The parents of any love-besotted teenager might want to know the answer to that. Dr Fisher suggests it might, indeed, be possible to inhibit feelings of romantic love, but only at its early stages. OCD is characterised by low levels of a chemical called serotonin. Drugs such as Prozac work by keeping serotonin hanging around in the brain for longer than normal, so they might stave off romantic feelings. (This also means that people taking anti-depressants may be jeopardising their ability to fall in love.) But once romantic love begins in earnest, it is one of the strongest drives on Earth. Dr Fisher says it seems to be more powerful than hunger. A little serotonin would be unlikely to stifle it.

Wonderful though it is, romantic love is unstable — not a good basis for child-rearing.

Ruth, non-believers like me have no problem explaining suffering. There's nothing to explain.

Humans suffer, just as every other animal suffers, because we are the results of natural processes, and those processes don't 'care' about us.

The universe, wonderful though it is, has no mind, no consciousness, and no feelings. If the Earth were to be hit by an asteroid tomorrow and utterly destroyed, the universe would not care. There's no consciousness there TO care!

Life is a wonderful by-product of evolution, and we should enjoy it while we have it.

I don't see this as arguing points, Wolf. It's just discussing a VERY interesting topic.

We each have out different viewpoints - but discussion is good. I've been delighted to see that in this forum, people don't get angry because I disagree with them. They seem happy to talk about our differences without feeling 'attacked'. I've had enough of these discussions to know that's pretty unusual!

My point is, if feelings of Love really ARE just the result of electro-chemical events in the brain (and current research indicates that is indeed the truth) - isn't that worth knowing?

And I don't for one second think that understanding the material cause of Love makes it one jot less wonderful. I love my wife - but knowing WHY I love my wife doesn't decrease the love I feel.