In biology lab, there is model of a neuron the source of chemical responses of the...

[Really Now?]

...brain....? I know how it all works. So if I am conditioned to have emotions aren't my emotions meaningless, after all they are nothing but chemical responses of the brain. Manipulations of the brain or conditioning. I don't apply the value, my brain is conditioned to apply the value to my emotions. I am nothing more than a trained Pavlov dog?
Abstract thought is illogical. So why should I think that an atheist (if I dated one) loved me, I would think that it was just some chemical responses of the brain and nothing more. Not much meaning in that.
It is indifferent. Some animals in the wild are indifferent to their offspring and to their mate. They lay them, raise them, a bit and leave. They soon kill and attack their own offspring if they encounter them later. The difference between them and humans is they we have evolved to have long term emotions for our offspring. Some animals don't have this.
So am I cuddling up with someone who cares for me, or with someone whose neurons had been conditioned via stimuli by conditioning (from me and his rearing) to think they are in love with me? What is the value in that? Where is the honesty in emotions that comes from neurons if it can put on a slide and looked at.

Sorry but I do not see emotions on a slide do you:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2166/2294885420_ed91b173c5.jpg

 

[Dr.Manhattan]

Meaning is something we feel the need to give to things. But there doesn't have to be any. Really. It's as you say. Emotions are triggered in response to external stimuli and stored as data for future retrieval.

 

[thundercatt9]

There is of course a universal longing and pleasure found in love. If there is no God, then the feeling of love is simply within us because of natural selection, and it is a complete illusion. If it is nothing more than a chemical reaction that has sustained humans, why is our longing for love so intense? Isn’t it more plausible to believe that a God of love made us in His image?

Or if there is no God, then why are human rights so important to societies? Do they just happen to be there (a huge leap of faith), or are they the result of the fact that a God of justice and goodness made the universe with certain absolute rights and wrongs?

A feeling is not just a chemical reaction. How do I know? Chemical reactions don't hurt, but feelings do. Feelings have a quality about them. What could be more obvious? As a matter of fact, it is so obvious that I feel silly even talking about it because you know this as well as I know this. Feelings have a particular texture to them that can't be captured in a chemical description. Do you see the price that you have to pay to buy this point of view? Everything gets lost. Even you. Even the people that think they're thinking these conclusions. They're gone, too. So, why trust the conclusions? After all they are just chemical reactions ...

There is no question that when I'm feeling an emotion, my brain still exists, it doesn't pop out of existance when we are having a conscience life. But remember, just because there is a correlation between two things, it doesn't mean they are the same thing. Just because there is a correlation between smoke and fire does't mean smoke is the same as fire. There is much data which shows that your conscience life can actually configure your brain. In short it is not just the brain that causes things to happen in your conscience life; conscience states can also cause things to happen in the brain.