Is Love Real?

Let's go back in time a bit shall we?  Scientists tell us that billions and billions of years ago, this universe exploded into existence.  Trillions upon trillions of particles came together to make up atoms which in turn made up molecules which in turn has made up every object in this universe.  I once learned in school years ago that matter cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be re-arranged.  I stand today completely at a loss to understand how it is possible that a large pile of hydrogen atoms joined up with a pile of oxygen atoms with a few other things thrown in somehow compose the creature that is composing this message.   Essentially, I have come to the conclusion that I am simply a pile of non-living atoms.  A strange phenomenon of the proper proportions of non-living molecules that has somehow found a way to not only begin to move on their own, but to think, dream, and love.  

Can life really exist when the building blocks of the universe is non-living, dead, inanimate material?  Are we really alive or are we simply a natural phenomenon that comes about as the result of a proper recipe of atoms?  After all, the atoms that compose each of us have existed since time began, they've been around for billions of years only to come together for a few years to compose us, then fall back apart again, never to compose me again.  And yet I am conscience of this..... how?  How is it that non-living inanimate atoms can be compelled to sacrifice and act in ways to help another pile of non-living atoms?  How does one pile become dependent on another pile?  

For billions and billions of years the most powerful force in the universe did not exist because the universe lacked the vehicle to bring it into existence.  With no living material in the universe, life should be impossible, and without life, love is impossible.  Yet somehow both life and love exist in a universe where each should be impossible, a universe composed of inanimate matter.  And outside of consciousness , neither can be appreciated.  Perhaps that is why our time here in this world is temporary.  After all, everything says we don't belong here, as piles of non-living atoms we shouldn't even exist in an alert state, let alone in a loving state.  

Yes, perhaps we only exist here for a short time to defy every law of this realm as living beings in a dead universe before we talk our place with the giver of life.  I have an opportunity here and now to pursue one of the rarest things and most beautiful things in existence, that being to love.  Will I take advantage of it, or am I simply sleepwalking along waiting for my pile of atoms to fall back apart again?  I've heard it said that life is short, but considering the circumstances in which it exists.......it's probably a lot longer than it should be.  The question is not how much time do I have left, rather it's what am I doing with the time I have now?