What is the single strongest force / emotion of the human soul?

Anger. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to little green dudes kickin ass. Can't get much stronger than that ;) `

<font color="#f683ad"> I couldn't vote because you didn't have the correct answer available. The answer is none...they are all reletive and subjective and not directly measureable in any meaningful way. </font>

Good Post.

Difficult but I'd say love is the most powerful. All the others are emotions that can be borne from love but not vice versa.

Great poll Jerome [img]smile.gif[/img]

He wasn't looking for the answer, he was looking for the opinion. ;)

Personally, from that list, I chose 'hope'. It's what drives the human will to do pretty much anything and everything.

<font color=red>Dreams would be the strongest. Without dreams, we have no well of motivation to accomplish anything and without this, cities and kingdoms wouldn't have been built and we wouldn't be where we are today.

Like in Timber's sig, What the King Dreams, the Hand Builds.</font>

i have to agree. dreams, hope, all of that comes from love. even anger and hate. we get angry when we or our *LOVED* ones are threatened, why???? because we love ourselves and our family and friends.

Anger! all the way ANGER!!!

Love. Every person on this earth can feel anger or hate. Not all people have enough love inside them to forgive. [img]smile.gif[/img]

MagiK, *tsk, tsk* [img]graemlins/idontagreeatall.gif[/img] Where is that famous killer instinct of yours? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Love. If you love enough, you can overcome all of the others.

I voted 'despair' - it's a real catalyst for me - if I feel really hopeless and lost, the last thing I want is to continue feeling that way, and so try to worm myself out of it in whatever way possible. It's what drives me in most situations; whether I'm panicking about something silly like a college exam, or I really miss my family or girlfriend, it's the one emotion that will push me to learn for that test, or encourage me to take the long trip to see those I really need to visit. I've often noticed that love breeds complacency more than anything, and I think it's a bit of a cliche to honestly say it's really the most powerful force on earth for everyone. I think 'love' is such an abstract word anyway.

Good to see you, Jerome. Hope you're holding up alright [img]smile.gif[/img]

Much as The Hierophant said, I was looking for the opinion, or, if not, the one which has affected you most in your life. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Praise be to love.

Heya. [img]smile.gif[/img] You know me: alive and well, though grumbling constantly. ;)

Interesting take on the whole idea. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hope, if you can't love, hope that you can. If you hate, hope that you don't. If you have no faith, hope that you may find it. imagine a person with no hope? Without this they would simply not try, and not live.

I do not belive love is a true emotion, sorry but i do belive in dreams.
bond and instinks are what i think people mistake for love

<font color="#f683ad"> I tried to post thsi before but just as I hit send the place went down :( .

Ok, We are the masters of our emotions and not vice-versa, emmotions only have the power we give them..it may be all that seperates us from the animals...we controll our instincts and our emmotions.

So I maintian, none of our emmotions are stronger than any others..they are all subjective and not objective. </font>

[ 05-05-2003, 03:12 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

I think Desire is the strongest emotion... but you didn't list it. IMO it is the basis for the existance of all the emotions you did list.

It can be positive (spurring us to achieve) or negative (jealosy, covetous, avarice, gluttony, etc...).

At our most basic level it's "WANT", the genetically programmed need to survive, to procreate, to BE...

At a more intellectual level it manifests as a need to grow, to learn, to expand as a person.

It is not relative or subjective I think. It is the absolute that drives us all... like it or no.

Ignorance of it's power is the fundamental (and fatal) flaw in Socialism.

Would be anger or hate.

Then you may ask what is the "bond"? It's not physical and it's definitely more than just a bond. I know many a mother that would throw down her life for her children. That's not through some discompassionate bond or instinct, that's love that is. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I think love is a very true emotion. True the word isn't always used correctly ie "I love chocolate", but I do believe in love.

<font color=red>Well, as I've read more and more, I won't say dreams is the strongest emotion, but rather the glue of it. Without dreams to build and become better than what you are, you can't feel desire, and with dreams of course comes creativity. To look ahead to hope and have faith that it will happen and anger and hate if it doesn't come true.

Dreams start it all...</font>

In my opinion I believe hate is. Hate is a powerful emotion. A emotion that can cause destructiun suffering and pain. As Yoda says

"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to SUFfering!"

Hate is something that is really hard to stop. Wars sometimes get started by hate by two rival countries. Fear too is a powerful emotion. Fear almost always leads to war. Like the cold war for example it didn't lead a war between the U.S. and Soviets but it fear made the U.S. determined to stop communism fearing that communism would get too powerful to take over the world.

The romantic in me wants to say love.

Unfortunatly one look at world affairs and it's easy to see that Hate is the most powerful. As even someone's love of there own people is not enough to break them out of the cycle of hate and violence. And when someone does have the courage to make that stand they are gunned down, often at the hands of a person on their 'side'.

Hear hear! Nicely typed Charlie. [img]smile.gif[/img]

MagiK, you make a good point. But you can still answer this poll. Which emotion do you grant most power? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anger, anger makes people strong. anger can destroy anything and everything. grrr.. I feel angry already. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

http://members.lycos.co.uk/alahihi/h...keroTrunks.gif

Anger and hate can move mountains quickly, but once moved, they easily move back. Love moves mountains, and once moved, they stay.

It's all about endurance. And who says... nevermind. Gotta keep the PG rating going... :D

Toss up between love and dreams - both have shaped who I am thus far, and what I want for the future. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I voted for fear. How cynical, I know, not voting for all the hopey ones like love and dreams (though whether you could call dreams a force [obviously not an emotion] is debatable - perhaps more like optimism or something). But I think fear is what stops people from doing things, and what causes them to resist change. Some people have voted for hate and anger, and they've even quoted the whole fear leads to anger thing - surely that which causes the anger and the hate is the most powerful. If we don't have the courage to change, then we stagnate. So for me, fear is the most powerful thing.

Charlie, that is precisely what I was going to say. Love inspires, or instigates all of the others.

Hear hear! Nicely typed Charlie. [img]smile.gif[/img]

MagiK, you make a good point. But you can still answer this poll. Which emotion do you grant most power? [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>[/QUOTE]The bond of a mother is an instink to protect the child, not what i would call love, sorry this is coming out wrong, i belive love is just aword,not an emotion that behind the word is more than anyone can explain, i do *love* my children but also there is to much feelings to be explained by that word, as for lovefor say another person not my children....i have never felt it, nor do i now, even though i am married, we are comfortable...most of the time, but love wasnever there

I think the problem is that people have a misconception of what love is. They think it is some syrupy romantic fuzzy feeling or either hormones running rampant. Love is not so much a feeling as an action. Love is something you do. It is to easy to spout off pretty words and say I love you. Love is something you have to show, and I believe it is shown in ways most people do not recognize.

Again, Charlie, I have to agree. Instinct and instinct alone does not account for people risking their lives for someone else. I am talking apart from one's children. At the risk of sounding religious (I'm not particularly religious), a quote that comes to mind for me is, "Great love has no man than this, that a man will lay down his life for a friend."

Regret can be either a strong negative force upon a man, or a great teacher. You may drift into despair, fear or anger, but it's often regret - clear hindsight and the yearning for what might have been - that'll help you either work to repair your mistakes or not make them again. Either that, or the frustration regret can bring will drag you back down into the clutches of anger or despair.

You could say that love and desire could cause you to regret your actions in the past, but if you see Regret as a seperate thing then I see it as the catalyst that gives these emotions their own power over a man.

Faith and Hope, too, can stem from regret - a belief that the past should not have been what it is can awake a need for the future to be better.

that is one very hard poll jerome. very hard if you ask me .. ive been debating already for more than 10min.. and im still stuck.. grr.. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

<font color="#f683ad">Well Willow [img]smile.gif[/img] I'll let you know as soon as I can figure out where to plug my emotion meter in [img]smile.gif[/img]
(don't like the orifices that have been suggested so far ;) )

You can't measure them so how can you say? </font>

Faith, but faith nurtures love and vice versa, so I guess I'd say the two go hand in hand. Hope is part of that mix too.

From personal experience, I'd say the negative emotions are strong, but the postive ones have major, lasting impact that's something I'd rather have over the years.

;) LOL...well, just have faith in your abilities... ;) LOLOL..dang, the things I'd say if we weren't in Jerome's serious thread and PG to boot! :D :D *keeps self from making earth moving jokes" :D :D


PS, In response to the comments on hate on 1st page- I'd say hate may be a very strong emotion but it not only is capable of hurting/destroying others, it inevitably damages the one who wields it in a variety of ways. Hate is destructive and self-destructive. It takes a lot of energy to maintain anger and hate and far less to love and share it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 05-06-2003, 10:09 AM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]

Of course you can measure them my dear MagiK. Count the number of times a day you respond with love or anger or despair etc. Then come back and tell us. I won´t stop nagging until you vote in this dang poll! So there! :D LOL

I think the strongest force of the human soul is the ability to choose. We choose to have hape, we choose to be angry, we choose to happy, sad, we choose to love. Without choice, we would be like any other animal in the world. Its the ability to choose between right and wrong.
Free Agency is strongest part of the humans.

I would have to say Love, closely followed by Dreams and Hope, which amount to the same thing in my opinion.

If you have nothing else, but you have love, that should be enough. On the other hand, love can inspire hope and dreams....

I reckon love, simply from experience - almost everything I do is due to love on one level or another. Also, knowing you're loved is surely the only reason you need to stay alive.

You're right measuring the strength of them isn't possible (at this stage - physiological recordings are as close as we can get and they aren't exactly uncontroversial ;) ) but you can measure raw instances as Willow said. There's not really any controversy about what the emotions are, what characterises them, and what can induce them.