# Love

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love/147135>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 7, 2003, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love/147135 "2003-01-07T11:18:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 10

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**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love/147135/181 "2003-01-20T14:34:04Z")

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Vorlon

I moved our tangential discussion to the God and Physics thread if you don’t mind. I’d like this to stay on topic. Thanks. 🙂

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**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love/147135/182 "2003-01-20T14:59:54Z")

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I don’t really know how to describe it, **Lib**. It really seems from what I experience that things are just _structured_ so that the right way to “operate” is to give the same acceptance to others that I receive from God; it’s not exactly a _task_ (thankfully, since I think very few achieve it), but more like a sort of mission. It seems impossible for me to describe without descending into banalities.

But yes, I would describe the feeling of that ‘structural detail’ as goodness. And definitely I receive from God an absolute acceptance which contains both respect for and something like joy concerning my existence — at least a profound appreciation.

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**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love/147135/183 "2003-01-20T15:26:33Z")

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And btw, I don’t know if I can ever learn to profoundly appreciate some people’s existence. I think the idea is to separate their actions from their being. I’m continuing to do the exercise I described, and I think the focus of Buddhism is to work toward acceptance and respect for all things. (It’s the appreciation part that’s the kicker for me.)

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**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love/147135/184 "2003-01-20T15:44:16Z")

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Xeno wrote:

> [@](#):
>
> I think the idea is to separate their actions from their being.

I especially like that and understand it completely. It’s the source of greatest frustration in my moral journey, or what you might call my mission. That God can (and does) separate my actions from what He knows is in my heart is astounding to me. I grok the concept intellectually, but so often fail spiritually when the time comes that I am supposed to be like God.

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