
Spanish: 
El Día de San Valentín se acerca y sale a relucir la
pregunta que tanto veo en línea, especialmente en esta época del año:
¿Los ateos son capaces
de amar?
Es una de esas preguntas que el sólo 
hacerlas resulta ofensivo, pero
el argumento que impulsa
al que hace la pregunta es:
"Bueno, si los ateos creen que somos
una combinación de químicos, o algo así.
Y que si amas a alguien, sólo es una serie de
reacciones químicas que suceden en tu cuerpo,
¿realmente puedes amar
a otra persona?"
No hablemos de eso por ahora...
Sí, los ateos son capaces de amar.
Decir que no, sólo porque es
una serie de reacciones químicas,
es como decir que la música
es sólo una serie de ondas de sonido.
Técnicamente, sí lo es, pero
todos sabemos que es mucho más que eso,
porque la música
evoca emociones
y sentimientos,
y no tienes que creer en lo sobrenatural
para eso. Lo mismo pasa con el amor.

English: 
Valentine's Day is coming up and it brings up the
question that I see a lot online, especially around this time of year which is:
Are atheists capable of love?
And it's one of those questions that's kind
of offensive that you would even have to ask that, but
the argument behind anyone
who might ask that question is:
"Well, if atheists just believe we're all
a bunch of chemicals or something
and, you know, if you love somebody, it's just a
series of chemical reactions going on in your body,
can you really
love another person?"
And let's just put that to rest right now.
Yes, atheists are capable of love.
Saying that we're not because it's just
a bunch of chemical reactions,
that's like saying music is just
a bunch of sound waves. Like
technically, yes, it is, but we all
know it's so much more than that,
because music evokes emotion
and feelings,
and you don't need to believe in the supernatural
for that to happen, and the same thing goes for love.

Spanish: 
El amor es un conjunto de experiencias compartidas.
Has decidido compartir tu vida con otra persona
y Jesús no necesita unírseles
y hacer un trío para que eso suceda.
En realidad, no creo
que tengas que
creer que vas a pasar,
no sólo el resto de tu vida,
sino toda la eternidad
con tu pareja para que
sea amor verdadero.
Creo que hay algo hermoso
en la visión atea del amor.
Y es que no creemos en la otra vida.
No creemos que haya nada más allá de la tumba,
lo que significa
que si tenemos suerte,
llegamos a vivir unos
70... 80 años, o algo así.
Y esperas, con suerte, pasar
la mayor parte de ese tiempo
con alguien que conociste y con quien
quieres pasar el resto de tu vida.
Desde la perspectiva del universo,
vives lo que dura el parpadeo de un ojo
y tenemos tanta suerte
de al menos estar vivos
que piensas: "No sólo quiero pasar
el resto de mi vida contigo,
daría cualquier cosa por ti.
Quiero formar una familia contigo. Quiero

English: 
Love is a bunch of shared experiences. You've decided
that you want to share your life with another person
and Jesus doesn't need to join in and
make it a threesome for that to happen.
I really don't believe
you have to
think that you are going to spend,
not just the rest of your life,
but all of eternity
with your partner in order to
make that real love.
I actually think there's something kind of
beautiful in the atheist outlook on love,
which is that, you know, we don't believe in an afterlife.
We don't believe there's anything beyond the grave
which means, you know,
if we're lucky,
we get to live for, I don't know,
70 years... 80 years, something like that,
and you're choosing to spend hopefully
the majority of that
with someone you met and someone you want
to spend that rest of your time with.
You know, you're only alive for like the blink
of an eye from the universe's perspective
and we're so lucky
to even be alive
and you're saying: "Not only do I want
to spend the rest of my life with you,
I would give up anything for you, I would--
I want to start a family with you. I want to

Spanish: 
despertar cada mañana junto a ti."
Probablemente sea la cosa
más desinteresada que puedas hacer.
Y no solo eso.
Si piensas que
vas a pasar la eternidad
con alguien, no sé,
puedo ver eso como
la base del argumento
de que los ateos son más capaces
de amar que los demás,
porque sabemos que todo va a terminar pronto y,
sin embargo, decidimos pasar el tiempo con esta otra persona.
Si crees que vas a estar
con alguien por toda la eternidad,
tal vez eso te impulsaría
a no hacer todo lo posible
por esa otra persona
en el aquí y ahora.
Eso no quiere decir que los cristianos sean incapaces de
eso, sino que los ateos no son menos capaces de amar que los religiosos.
Y otra cosa importante
a traer a colación
es que hay algo sorprendente
en el hecho de que
los ateos no creen que Dios
los guio hacia esta otra persona.
He oído a mucha
gente religiosa decir:
"Dios me guio
hacia esa otra persona".
Tal vez se conocieron en línea,
pero dirán: "Dios

English: 
spend pretty much
every waking hour with you."
That's probably the most
selfless thing you can do.
And not only that,
you know, if you think
you're going to spend eternity
with someone, I don't know,
I could see that as
the basis for an argument
that atheists are more capable of love
than someone else,
because we know it's all going to end soon and yet,
we're choosing to spend our time with one other person.
You know, if you think you're gonna be
with someone for all of eternity,
maybe that gives you an incentive
to not do everything possible
for that other person
in the here and now.
And that's not to say that Christians are incapable
of that, but that atheists are no less capable of love than religious people are.
And I think another important
thing to bring up
is that there is something kind of
amazing about the fact that
atheists don't believe God
guided them to that other person.
I think I've heard a lot of
religious people say, you know,
"God guided me
to that other person".
They might meet online,
but they'll say, you know: "God

English: 
meant for us to be together.
God had someone special out there for me".
And if you're an atheist, you probably
don't believe in any of that,
which means that,
you know,
you might have met someone
through good luck
or serendipity or, you know, through some online thing,
or maybe you met just at a party somewhere,
and out of all this chaos of the world, of all the things
that had to go right for you to meet that special someone,
you found a way to create
some sort of order
and beauty from that chaos.
And you made something of that,
and I think that's just
the most amazing thing.
And it's so much cooler to me that
you made something happen like that.
than if you said, you know,
"I was always meant to meet this other person
and God was always
just guiding me there."
It's like, "Well, you could have
done anything and it would--
it would have worked out just perfectly
for you if you believe in that sort of thing,"
but for atheists no. There are so--
there are millions of things that could have happened
and yet you decided to take this route.
You chose it for yourself

Spanish: 
quiso que estuviéramos juntos.
Dios tenía a alguien especial para mí."
Y si eres ateo, es probable
que no creas en nada de eso,
lo que significa que
tal vez conociste a alguien
gracias a la buena suerte
o serendipia, o a través de algún sitio en línea,
o en una fiesta por ahí,
y fuera de todo el caos en el mundo, de todas las cosas
que tuvieron que pasar para que conocieras a esa persona especial,
encontraste una manera
de crear cierto orden
y belleza dentro del caos.
Y sacaste algo de eso,
y creo que eso
es lo más increíble.
Y para mí es algo mucho más genial
que lograras que algo así sucediera,
que decir: "Siempre estuve destinado
a conocer esta persona
y Dios siempre me empujó
en esa dirección".
Es como: "Bueno, pudiste haber
hecho cualquier cosa y
te habría funcionado perfectamente
si crees en ese tipo de cosas",
pero no es así para los ateos. Hay millones
de cosas que pudieron haber pasado
y, sin embargo, decidiste tomar esa ruta.
Tú mismo la elegiste

Spanish: 
y sacaste algo de eso.
Es increíble en gran manera.
Me llamo Hemant Mehta y escribo
en FriendlyAtheist.com
Por favor, deja tus comentarios debajo
y te aseguro que lo leeremos.

English: 
and you made something out of that.
There's something just really incredible about that.
My name is Hemant Mehta and I write
at FriendlyAtheist.com
Please, leave your comments below
and we will be sure to check them out.
