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Love, infinite (from Old English leob "dear"): the strongest way of turning to another person. In general, love is accompanied by feelings of euphoria and deep attachment (usually with the balance shifting over time toward more of the latter and less of the former). To speak of infinite love for another person sounds almost tautological inasmuch as such love — unlike the love of art, money, or one's homeland — is typically experienced by the lover as infinite, eternal, or unlimited. Infinite love is like an axiom; it is not subject to any conditions. Paul's almost 2000-year-old description of love (Corinthians 1.13) is up-to-date even now: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrong. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." To be sure, by "love" Paul here means the selfless, non-possessive love that, in a Christian view, God and His son have toward all, or the brotherly love that (at least ideally) one should have toward one's fellow human beings.* He does not mean erotic or romantic love toward a sexual partner, which is probably a product of evolution. As a biopsychological mechanism, erotic or romantic love also promotes family community during the children's early years of life, providing the family with a survival advantage over those groups in which the parents split up right after pairing (at least unless the groups have developed some stable alternative such as communal childrearing). Some scientists, such as Richard Dawkins, regard the ►love of God as an undesirable side effect of the (genetically more advantageous) love toward a human partner. * Greek agape, Latin caritas.
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