A humans as "reactive chemicals" view of love the chemical reaction along with some type of "chemical equation of love" of the form:or you plus me to the power of infinity equals love. |
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Left: A 2005 poll results of 100 Americans on the query: "is love a chemical reaction?", finding that 65.5% of Americans believe that love is a chemical reaction. [3] Right: an AllPosters.com Valentine's day poster/picture depicting love as a chemical reaction. [20] |
See main: Goethe's human chemistry; Human chemical reaction (history)The first to postulate that love is a chemical reaction, was German polymath Johann von Goethe who, after studying chemistry for a period of fifty years, along with having attended the weekly lectures of his life-long friend German chemist Johann Dobereiner, conceived a view that human relationships are elective affinity reactions that can be quantified by affinity tables. [2]
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
“Love is a romantic designation for a most ordinary biological—or, shall we say, chemical—process … a lot of nonsense is talked and written about it.”
Left: A 2007 video series on the query "Is Love a Purely Chemical Reaction?" [Intro, Part 1 (above), Part 2, and Part 3] by American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims. Right: Cover story: "Love: the Chemical Reaction", in the February 2006 (Valentine's day) issue of National Geographic. |
“When we meet an Imago match, that chemical reaction occurs and love ignites. All other bets, all other ideas about what we want in a mate are off. We feel alive and whole, confident that we have met the person who will make everything all right.”
A section on the back cover of the 2007 textbook Human Chemistry, by American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims, showing cupid, two people in love, and the famous 1939 Ninotchka film quote by Greta Garbo. |
A 2009 correction video by American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims to correct Chinese chemical engineer Anthony Fong who stated from his university office at Shantou University that the love viewed as a chemical reaction is a myth. |
Reactant + Reactant → Product
Mx + Fy → Mx≡Fy
Left: a 2001 online Q&A posting, Americans geneticist and veterinarian Tamara McArdle and a seven-year-old student named Jason, hosted by the Physics Van Outreach program of the physics-engineering department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a quote that drove the construction of the 2007 textbook Human Chemistry. [1]Right: an anthropomorphized cartoon-style "humans as chemicals" view of love being viewed as a purely chemical reaction and reproduction (a baby test tube). |
“To all rational readers, the use of the chemical theory is nonsense and childish fooling around.”
“Love is in its ultimate analysis nothing but a chemical reaction.”
A 2011 reaction video by an religious-themed American YouTuber who sees the notion of love being viewed as a chemical reaction to be “horsehockey” (bull-crap in plain speak), being that it conflicts with (a) the Bible and (b) his philosophical outlook, which he lists as "Holy Bible (KJV), Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, The Creature from Jekyll Island by Edward Griffin, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis." |
“Let’s focus on that one statement: ‘love is a chemical reaction’. That’s an incredibly deep statement and I think it’s a lie from the pit of hell.”
“Loneliness, like any other emotion, is just a chemical reaction in your brain, as is possible with all emotions, you can control it … Unfortunately, we oftentimes lack the power to do so.”— Aedan Clarke (2013), Tumblr post (Ѻ); reblogged 198+ times
“Listen, Morty, I hate to break it to you but what people call ‘love’ is just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed. It hits hard, Morty, then it slowly fades, leaving you stranded in a failing marriage. I did it. Your parents are gonna do it. Break the cycle, Morty. Rise above. Focus on science.”— Justin Roiland (2014), opinion of Rick (clip:Ѻ)(fuller:Ѻ), from the 6th episode (Ѻ) “Rick Potion No. 9” (Ѻ), of the Rick and Morty show, Jan 27
Image from a Oct 2015 Reddit thread (Ѻ) discussing the 27 Jan 2014 love philosophy of Rick of the Rich and Morty show. | |||
Left: Rick (Ѻ), from the Rick and Morty show (2014), schooling Morty on love. Right: a test tube view of love as a chemical reaction, alluding to the notion that love is a "human chemical reaction" (a surface-attached chemical reaction) between people viewed as "human chemicals" (or human molecules), and is a process (falling in love) involving heat (or fire), electricity (sparks), love (and hate), among other factors, such as music, money, happiness, a cold body, cocktails (lowers activation energy barrier), etc., out of which, in the case of a human reproduction reaction, a child (new human molecule) (precipitate) is synthesized. |