@THContent

Everything we do is a simple matter of firing neurons and hormone secretions. You touch and hold a small puppy, and thus, chemical cocktails indicate a feeling of happiness, love, and "fuzzy wuzzies." Does breaking this action down to specific set of chemicals and neuron firings make the experience any less real or enjoyable?

Our unconscious mind creates all of these reactions, and doesn't make it obvious for a reason- we'd have to spend every minute of every day aware of these secretions and firings, and it would interrupt any behavior we needed for basic survival, let alone living enjoyably. The separation of the conscious mind from the subconscious is a VERY interesting and necessary arrangement.

Analysis of women through their monthly cycle indicates that women tend to go for stronger, virile men while ovulating to ensure healthy sperm, good genetics, and a high chance of infant survival. While women are not ovulating, they tend to prefer men with softer, more nurturing features to ensure a good mate that will stick around, care for her and the child, and provide a loving atmosphere.

While these studies are fascinating and undoubtedly important for understanding humans and our environment as a whole, it should not and cannot be a strict standard of rules regarding why we do what we do.

Love is complex, and hormones- though they do play a very important role- do not have a complete monopoly on love. They seem to be a loose set of indicators of preferences that a person has towards a mate. When a woman finds a man who has a lot in common and who fits her idea of attraction- physical, emotional, sexual, etc.- then the hormones give her a sort of subconscious indicator that she should remain with him. Love isn't a black and white issue of "it's just hormones and neurons, so it's not real"; rather we should look at love through many different angles- not only physical, but sociologically, psychologically, neurologically, sexually, etc.

One could get into a VERY long-winded and philosophical/psychological discussion, debating if sensation and perception of objects prove the existence of matter, or if it's just a mass hallucination. Experiencing an object, feeling, event, etc. automatically makes it "real" in a sense because your mind and body perceive it.