There is an old saying - 'Love is stronger than hate".

That makes a good sound bite ... but is it true?

If you take life on Earth and measure which is stronger,
love or hate , it seems very obvious that hate is stronger.

It isn't until you add the Christian notion of an afterlife with
a loving creator God doling out rewards and punishments 
that you can possibly get the 'love is stronger than hate'.

I say that on Earth, hate is stronger than love.
It's more motivating.   It has more passion.   
It has more energy.  It is more binding.

And yes, some people love to hate.

What do you say ... which is stronger?   Love or Hate?

And that's not a judgement upon hate.  
Hate isn't necessarily a bad thing.
It all depends on the situation and what is hated.

I think hate is more contagious, but not stronger.   Hate is of a .... what to call it ...  a shorter wavelength than love.    Hate is reactionary.   Hate inflicts.    Love is long term, and therefore, for me, love is stronger, because once it spreads, it plays the long game.

Love is stronger. Unconditional love can have hate but wont lose love. That makes it stronger than hate.

(02-12-2026, 05:37 PM)argentus Wrote: I think hate is more contagious, but not stronger.   Hate is of a .... what to call it ...  a shorter wavelength than love.    Hate is reactionary.   Hate inflicts.    Love is long term, and therefore, for me, love is stronger, because once it spreads, it plays the long game.

This is true, but I think the exact configuration depends on the individual.

Both love and hate are forms of passion. Some are lukewarm, lacking abundance of either.
Both love and hate become strong or weak by the addition or lack of wisdom. A fool's passion comes to naught.
The possible conflagration effect of strong, wise passion is diminished by a person's dullness or complacency.

It might seem that wise hatred is a contradiction, but perhaps look at some of the elite supremacists who hold power in this world...

Hate is easier

Control — using either Love or Hate. 

Or both at the same time — as with bi-polar.

I think hate is stronger.
The reason is that if love is the good emotion, then the opposite is bad.

The Evil One supports hate and the Evil One is always trying to convince us to the dark side, using hate as his vehicle.


I liked what argentus had to say about hate being easier and contagious....fits my narraive about the Evid Side.

And this isn't about folks saying they "love" Brussel sprouts and "hate" kale.

(02-12-2026, 05:37 PM)argentus Wrote:  Love is long term, and therefore, for me, love is stronger, because once it spreads, it plays the long game.

Love is hot.  It burns bright at first but then can burn out.

Hate is cold.   And It endlessly feeds itself.  And feeds on itself..

(02-12-2026, 07:17 PM)DontTreadOnMe Wrote: I think hate is stronger.

Looking at the state of the world ... hate controls it.

If love was stronger than hate, we wouldn't have had 100 million people killed by the false ideology of communism in the 20th century alone, and communism didn't die off but instead is just as strong and spreading just as much.

A theological note ...

Technically a Christian is supposed to say, and believe, that love is stronger than hate because Christ died for love of us and rose on the third day conquering the hate and evil of Satan, and purchasing eternal life for us.   

But I didn't want to bring in theology so that's why I left it out in the opening post.