LeGrande: "The phrase "love your enemy" is a simple recognition of that power."
What is this power? Where does it come from?
Your original post (#65) was fundamentally agnostic in that you believe religion to be merely a created concept "useful" to man. If there is some "power" (such as the power of love or hate), then this must exist outside of man.
You made the inference that religions were invented by man to promote his own well being. But you give no proper explanation of why loving your enemy promotes man's well being except for this illusive "power".
What is this power? Where does it come from?
Love and hate are emotions based on fear and greed. The power comes from our responses to those emotions.
Your original post (#65) was fundamentally agnostic in that you believe religion to be merely a created concept "useful" to man. If there is some "power" (such as the power of love or hate), then this must exist outside of man.
No the concept (emotions) of love and hate is entirely in man. The power comes from the ability to elicit those emotions and getting people to act on them.
You made the inference that religions were invented by man to promote his own well being. But you give no proper explanation of why loving your enemy promotes man's well being except for this illusive "power".
Hatred generally arises from mutually incompatible goals. For example if a muslim wants me dead because of his god and I want to live to piss on his moonrock those are mutually incompatible goals which generally lead to hatred. If either of us act on our hatred one or the other of us is likely to die, hence the power of hatred.
Now lets pretend that this evil muslim has a beautiful sister who loves me and who I love in return. Love in this case is very likely to overcome the mutual hatred that the evil muslim and I share. I am now much less likely to piss on his moonrock and he may not want to kill me as badly.
Like the heathen Sun Tzu claimed sometimes beating your opponent can be accomplished without fighting. Love is just another quiver in the arsenal, a powerful one at that.
The real power of love and hate is being able to control those emotions : )