unconditional

Nothing is unconditional. EVERYTHING is conditioned by the One-Who-Brung-Ya-To-The-Dance.

Uh, unless you engineered your own birth, of course. (And there are certainly plenty of those whose 'conditions' convince them 'tis so.)

Case closed.

Lighter note: Jes' kiddin'.

...or M I?

I guess I just don't buy the notion that humans are incapable of unconditional love, or that we have to save such notions for "the divine." If my children did something unspeakable, I'd still love them. I'm absolutely certain of this. They may deserve retribution for their actions, but the love I have for them is unconditional and nothing could change that.

I think I'd better lighten this up. Here you go:

GOD: Oh, don't grovel! One thing I can't stand, it's people groveling.
ARTHUR: Sorry.
GOD: And don't apologize. Every time I try to talk to someone it's 'sorry this' and 'forgive me that' and 'I'm not worthy'. What are you doing now?!
ARTHUR: I'm averting my eyes, O Lord.
GOD: Well, don't. It's like those miserable Psalms-- they're so depressing. Now, knock it off!

My kind of theology...

Skipvia, I think what they meant (those who taught us that human love cannot be unconditional) is that there's always *something* the object of love can do that would make a person stop loving him or her. Say you marry someone, and promise to love him/her for life. Now suppose that person turns out to be a rapist, murderer, child molester, or does something so terrible that you simply cannot love that person anymore. Well, your love wasn't unconditional, even though you didn't specifically enumerate any conditions on it at first. Or even more prosaically, suppose one simply "falls out of love" with someone else, after pledging his/ her undying, unconditional love? Well, I guess that love wasn't unconditional after all.

Now, that's very different from saying "I love you only if you do what I say," or "... meet these conditions." I don't think that's the same thing at all (at least, that's not what I meant to say).

The idea--again, I'm just the messenger here--is that divine love is the only kind that is truly unconditional.

Secondly, it's not really right to assume that a person could love even a *thing* unconditionally. (Though I suspect you weren't really talking about inanimate objects in your comment but just using a familiar idiom.)

And thirdly, I'm glad you love me unconditionally... :) though I suspect if I went off the deep end and turned into a complete asshat on Wordie that you'd soon stop making nice declarations like that, and therefore your love could be said to have been conditional.

Anyway, I was just remarking what they taught us in Catholic school. :)

Oh, and fourthly: I'm glad I'm not in Catholic school anymore.

Saul Bellow's Herzong calls unconditional love, or a form of it at least, potato love. Herzog is harshly critical of it, but he's also a total wreck, so he's not exactly a reliable witness.

"I only love you if you do what I say?" What kind of love is that?

Um, conditional love? (Scurries away)
The only kind known by cats, where the condition invariably involves food. So one could also refer to it as cupboard love.

If you don't love something unconditionally, you probably don't love it. "I only love you if you do what I say?" What kind of love is that?

We love you unconditionally, c_b. :)

I was taught, when very young, that no human love can be unconditional--only God's.

Edit: I didn't mean this to come off as preachy, just a remark that I never thought parental love was supposed to be this...

What parental love is supposed to be.