Replies

Typical Ayn Rand stuff. Attacking a Straw Man.

SOME love is altruistic, in the sense of going against instinct. But no orthodox Christian (which is what these Ayn Rand people imagine they are attacking) holds that love has nothing to do with delighting in the qualities of the beloved, whether spouse or close friend.

This is such bunk. By sacrificing for our beloved, we do not diminish that person or make them a "charity case." By offering ourselves for our beloved, we magnify them. We build them up. This is so basic (to anyone but a randian).

The randians have just enough of the truth to distort it thoroughly. Love is self giving. One does need to have a proper sense of self in order to give that self to another. The proper sense of the self is NOT the egoist selfishness, but rather that one's dignity and worth come from God (as do all good things).

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (English-NIV)

1
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10
but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.