What came first: love or chaos? A stream of consciousness debate on parts of The Symposium by Plato

Regardless of what Ovid said in Heroides, it is silly to think chaos could come before love when A. love is the sole catalyst for life, the seed of its manifestation and B. Chaos only comes from the combination, or lack thereof, love and fear. Not only is it plain to see why love prompts fear, but their natural alienation of the other is even Biblical based on the verse stating “perfect love casts out fear.” The two, one can imagine, are like oil and water, settling apart so seamlessly that they only emphasize the other’s existence. This is essential, since we know a thing is made true by its opposing force: that light cannot exist without its absence, noise without the knowing of silence, etc. But love and fear come from that same source, and love is the most ancient of all things being the seed of creation. Fear: its essential opposition. They must have, thus, split like an atom (not surprisingly, the name of the first ever man). And this was the birth of chaos, both then and now.

The ignorance of Eden was like an unborn thing that hasn’t seen the light and is, in turn, unaware it’s in the dark. It was the momentary whole before that essential separation. Essential, I say, because we need gratitude for God. Because we are meant to glorify him and, as we saw with Adam and Eve, we are unable to in our ignorance. The knowledge of good and evil that caused our castaway was the same fissure as that of love and fear. Love is with good and fear with evil. This is not because love is good and fear is evil, but because it’s impossible to get to the root of any one act without arriving at one of these motivators. This is an excellent way to differentiate the morality of behavior, to determine what is just from what is unjust.

But I find it worth noting once again that fear is not evil, it is only loveless. This depiction paints mankind with a certain softness that can in all scenarios prompt the forgiveness God shows us. It can also explain the necessity of Christ’s love, proven through the sacrifice.

If fear overpowers love, creation would cease to exist. Of course, however, to say this is to imply there is finite space in our universe and I will not claim to know that answer at this moment. Still, it seems an interesting factor to consider. Nonetheless, overpopulation of fear must cast out love (and, thus, life and good) to some degree at the very least. Perhaps, beyond the love of Christ in and of itself, this motivated the urgency of sacrifice? Again, I will not claim to know at this moment.

My thoughts have drifted to Romeo and Juliet. Imagine the potency of a love that casts out fear of death. Does this disprove the theory that morality of our actions can be determined by their motivator? No. We must observe the fruit before its seed. The suicides of Romeo and Juliet were what one could consider the antithesis of sacrifice because they opposed pain at the cost of everyone else’s. Both began with love, but were motivated by its loss because any loss of love is replaced by fear. Like light to dark and noise to silence, and all other opposing forces which serve to prove one another. We know this.