Before talking about what love is, or whether it exists, we need to look more closely at the meaning of the word "love"
Here are two sentences:
- Love is mean and love hurts (lyrics from a Lana del Rey song)
- Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud (The Bible, 1 Cor 13:4)
Is it possible to have a word that fits in these two sentences. No. It is not possible. Basically, if 1. means A., then 2. means "not A". That is a logical impossibility.
What this means is that the word "love" in English is meaningless. In that sense, yes, it does not exist.
Now, what about "romantic love", i.e. the feeling that is supposed to be the basis for a human couple?
If we continue to use the word "love" we will not get anywhere because of the inconsistency that we have noticed above. So what word can be used? If we look at the variant of the ancient Greek language that was used to write the Bible, there are two words that are usually translated as "love": "eros" and "agape" (pronounce "agapay"). Eros is sexual desire, while Agape is the kind of caring feeling that we have for a pet.
Can "Eros" be the basis for a couple? No, obviously. Eros is the basis for a one-night stand, nothing more.
Can "Agape" be the basis for a couple? Neither. Agape is nice but it grows slowly. We don't feel it for someone we do not know well.
A couple is a deal, an arrangement, not something based on feelings. Either we manage to recover this understanding, or we will never again be able to form stable man/woman couples.
Once the deal is done, both "agape" and "eros" can exist within it. But none of them is sufficient to bind a man and a woman into a couple.
A deeply flawed understanding of Christianity led our culture from "agape" to romantic love; from "God is love (agape)" to "eternal (romantic) love". The latter statement is even more a legend than the first. Then we realized that the romantic legend had turned into a BDSM dungeon. And then we have Lana del Rey's lyrics