As someone who has been betrayed by another who claimed to love me, as many people have, I would not rely on behavior or witness testimony as proof of anything. It is one of the basic tenets of the scientific method that theory can only be proven through experimentation and/or observation.
Love is a lowering of the naturally occurring complex fear-imperative barrier that exists between all humans. Family ties normally dissolve this barrier. At other times, we dissolve it voluntarily, over time as a result of being physically attracted to another individual. In other words, love is unconditional trust. Which is probably why I don't have that particular emotion. I trust no one unconditionally outside of my family and my closest inner-circle. And even then, I am suspicious of them from time to time.
Without a brain scan at the time of a person's declaration of love, even if love is truly present, there is an unquantifiable degree of possible falsehood involved with any evidence which has to be taken purely on someone's word. I would trust cat's declaration of love far more than I would a human's. We are a deceptive species by nature.
The advanced techniques in brain-mapping and cognitive analysis that science has blessed us with in the last 40 years attribute the emotion of love to the tiny primitive brain node that provides our baser, "thoughtless" instincts. Further, attraction and attachment show up as patterns quite similar to what one would see as a result of psychosis and obsession.
A lot of people like to attribute some sort of quasi-metaphysical attributes to love, as if it had both intrinsic value and importance, or even a major role in our consciousness. Not one of these things have ever been proven to be true, despite all the love poems, rock ballads, and soap operas. What CAN be proven is the amount of dysfunctional behavior that comes along with the misguided worship of Eros.
Love has its place; relegated to a passing intoxication that brings joy to the otherwise joyless existence that society has become. But I question any attempt to raise this fear-based delusion to anything deserving of even the modicum of respect and adoration.
The brain does evolve. However, as anyone who studied evolution knows, the genome does not always abandon ancestral gene structures. We still have our primitive reptilian brain (the amygdala and limbic system) integrated with our more recent and more intellectual mammalian brain structure.
Everyone's brains function in the same manner. No matter what experience and information the individual has put into it. We all use the same thought processes to manage that information. Love is not information. Love is a chemical reaction--a physical mechanism. No different from one person to the next. The only difference is the amount of importance the individual places on love. But no matter how much importance you place on it, that does not alter the fact that love is purely a function of biology.
None of this originates from my own mind. I'm citing scientific research, not engaging in puerile fantasy or employing solipsistic methodology. This would not be the first time someone has laid that claim as a means of avoiding having to challenge accepted scientific evidence. An attempt at misdirection. It's always much simpler to argue semantics than discredit the research.
There's a time when love was not bring me any pleasure. I've been gifted with extreme left-brain orientation and an ENTP Myers-Briggs personality type. Logic is my love. But I would not seek to stop others from enjoying their human on human love fest. The less angry people in the world, the better. But I have no use for it myself. I predict, one day, evolution will eventually considered it obsolete, and do away with it's function altogether.
I choose my mates by compatibility, intelligence, and whether we share similar goals and hobbies. Not because my loins feel funny by the butterflies. My own personal beliefs is that the mechanism for love is one of the most basic cognitive functions for all higher life forms, just like fear, panic, curiosity. As a side note, ironically, happiness seems to be a function of higher brain function and is not a base emotion like the others. Go figure. Fear requires only instinct. Happiness requires understanding. I suspect that when many people state they are in love, what they really mean to state is, "I am happy I am in love."
Love is one of those simple biological functions that we as humans with our language, and speech, and imagination like to go and assign greater meaning to. Like we assign sentience to the laws of nature and call it God. Love too has undergone apotheosis. But it is a false god for certain.
