Beliefs Regarding the Origin of Love - Personal Essay

This essay discusses my beliefs regarding the origin of love. I believe that the human emotion

of love originates from the very strong bond between parents and their children. We give the

name of "love" to that innate emotion which so strongly binds parents to their children. It is

clearly an evolutionary adaptation for ensuring the survival of the species, just as a mother bear

so strongly protects her young, up to & including sacrificing her own life.

Parental love doesn't require the presence of biologically-related children, it is equally

expressed by parents of adopted children or step-children. In fact, love doesn't require the

presence of children at all - the emotion is still present in all of us and can be expressed to &

felt for many people - one's spouse, one's relatives, one's friends, one's Supernatural Being(s),

one's favorite football team, etc.

This is similar to the emotion of anger - its evolutionary origin is probably to generate the

physiological response necessary to defend one's life or to defend one's family. However,

athletic coaches long ago learned how to manipulate the emotion of anger (among other

emotions) for success on the athletic field. Likewise, love can be expressed in many, many

situations, especially since it is such a strong emotion. However, its strongest instantiation is

between parent and child.

I believe the emotion of love is, in general, stronger in women than men and explains the

relative extent to which men (again, in general) can more easily vacate their parental

responsibilities than women. I believe the stronger emotion of love in women also explains their

better ability (in general and relative to men) to express their love.

As a topical example of the ease with which women can express love, my wife and I were at a

movie theater recently while two hurried young female attendants were rushing around cleaning

theaters between movies. As they passed each other in the hallway, one said to the other "I

love you" followed by the same reply from the other. It was certainly nothing sexual and was

just an expression of their fondness for each other. As we all know, it would be unlikely for two

males to say this to each other - something about hell freezing over comes to mind. If males do

express their love for each other, it is generally associated with beer and followed