# About those 72 virgins waiting for you in Paradise... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 2, 2015, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194 "2015-12-02T06:21:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/21 "2015-12-02T17:32:42Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > 😕 I wasn’t claiming that those Midrash passages were “suggestive”, if by that you mean sexual. I was just pointing out that both the Muslim and Jewish descriptions of Paradise emphasize the material pleasure and luxury of the surroundings. > [@running\_coach](#): > > Revelation 21:16-21 > > > [@](#): > > > > 16 The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. > > 17 Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. > > 18 The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. > > 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, > > 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. > > 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. > > Sounds pretty high rent to me. 😃 At first they offered a small wooden hut on a barren plain where it rained non-stop for six months and then baked the rest with only the companionship of an aged goat, but there were few takers. [QUOTE=Kimstu;18903601Modern western culture and spirituality, of course, have been heavily influenced by Christian thought, which is why the idea of sex in heaven seems so shocking and almost perverse even to many people nowadays who don’t consider themselves Christian.[/QUOTE] I’ve been around christians my whole life and never once heard any suggestion there was no sex in Heaven. Marriage, no because that is attachment, but sex is fine. In fact, since the 1890s christians in the West don’t get bothered about sex, nor condemnatory. Maybe it’s different in America. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/22 "2015-12-02T18:13:04Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > I’ve been around christians my whole life and never once heard any suggestion there was no sex in Heaven. For what is worth Buddhism is pretty clear that theres no sex in Heaven. If you are obsessed by sex and “cling” to it, then you’ll get reborn as a lower animal like a goat or a rabbit that gets to do sex all day long. This is Tibetan Buddhism as represented in the Tibetan Book of the Dead anyway. YMMV with other branches of Buddhism, not much is constant with them all 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/23 "2015-12-02T18:17:08Z")
How do I sign up to be born again as a goat? ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/24 "2015-12-02T18:23:06Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > How do I sign up to be born again as a goat? According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead all you have to do is focus on sexual imagery in your mind in your dying moments and it will happen automatically. May not be a goat but it will some animal that is focused primarily on copulation. have fun! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/25 "2015-12-02T18:58:05Z")
Does a female get 72 male virgins? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/26 "2015-12-02T19:02:49Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > How do I sign up to be born again as a goat? Goat schmoat. Come back a healthy Triple Crown winning stallion. Three years of racing and then a lifetime of pampering in a stable fancier than 98% of America’s housing, having the finest females of your species regularly brought to you. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/27 "2015-12-02T19:35:11Z")
Won’t they be surprised when they find waiting are 72 middle aged gamers that used to live in their parents’ basements. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/28 "2015-12-02T19:43:13Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Won’t they be surprised when they find waiting are 72 middle aged gamers that used to live in their parents’ basements. You can smirk all you want but what they get offered is multiple houris who are “young women of firm breast” or similar. They might be being lied to but at least the Quran is clear they are being offered young firm women, not virgin pudgy gamers. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/29 "2015-12-02T19:49:00Z")
Of course, in Muslim Heaven There Is No Beer. Wouldn’t worry me much, but I know some people who would be disappoint. [\*And the song’s from a German film of the 1950s: not old at all. \*] ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/30 "2015-12-02T20:11:54Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > 😕 I wasn’t claiming that those Midrash passages were “suggestive”, if by that you mean sexual. I was just pointing out that both the Muslim and Jewish descriptions of Paradise emphasize the material pleasure and luxury of the surroundings. > > Anyway, there **are** Jewish writings that describe copulation occurring in Paradise where the righteous pass their afterlife, such as the [_Seder Gan 'Eden_](https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=pxDlVVAX9_gC&pg=PA106#v=onepage&q&f=false): > > Which is similarly described [elsewhere in the Midrash](https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=60iVk1p8Y9IC&pg=PA190) as follows: > So you see, the concept of there being sexual intercourse for the spirits of the dead in the afterlife is not an exclusively Muslim one. Nor does it seem to have been a particularly daring notion for any medieval Abrahamic religion except Christianity, which of course has always tended to equate sexual purity with celibacy. > > Medieval mystical Jewish and Muslim visions of Paradise seem to have been more straightforwardly hedonic in conceiving the material aspects of the afterlife: Paradise is where the righteous souls are eternally joyful, sex is joyful, so the righteous souls have sex, big deal. > > Modern western culture and spirituality, of course, have been heavily influenced by Christian thought, which is why the idea of sex in heaven seems so shocking and almost perverse even to many people nowadays who don’t consider themselves Christian. “The” Jewish writing on Paradise (“gan Eden”) does no such thing. Over two millennia of freely allowed creative exploration revealing a certain strain with one of very very few “proof texts” with the authority, such as it is, of Midrash, does not an eschatological principle make. It is well known that descriptions of life/whatever in the world to come are in themselves, if not deprecated, a minor endeavor in normative Judaism. A waste of time, essentially. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/31 "2015-12-02T22:40:00Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > How do I sign up to be born again as a goat? PM a mod. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/32 "2015-12-02T22:55:02Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > It is well known that descriptions of life/whatever in the world to come are in themselves, if not deprecated, a minor endeavor in normative Judaism. A waste of time, essentially. :dubious: So? My point is merely that such descriptions in Jewish theological writings do not reject the notion of sex in the afterlife for the souls of the righteous. I’m not trying to claim that this is a crucial issue in mainstream Jewish doctrine. Similarly, I doubt that the question of exactly what kind or how many celestial beings the souls of the righteous get to have sex with in the afterlife is a crucial issue in mainstream Muslim doctrine. So it’s rather puzzling to note how obsessed many non-Muslims seem to be with that question. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/33 "2015-12-02T23:05:35Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > Does a female get 72 male virgins? An online resource said women get 72 metrosexual jinn to feed then non-fattening bonbons, and either tell them what happened that day on their soaps, or just listens contentedly to the faithful woman’s feelings, according to her whim. (The houris are supposed to be able to restore their virginity at the man’s whim.) That online reference didn’t quote a source, but I think its an awesome description of heaven, even better the our master’s contrast of the Native American Happy Hunting Grounds vs the Christian Happy Harping Grounds. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/34 "2015-12-02T23:14:57Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > Does a female get 72 male virgins? Oh great! Seventy-two fumblers who will be so excited they won’t last more than two minutes each, with skin so transparent I can see all the _SEXY_ marrow. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/35 "2015-12-02T23:19:32Z")
> [@Sahirrnee](#): > > Oh great! Seventy-two fumblers who will be so excited they won’t last more than two minutes each, with skin so transparent I can see all the _SEXY_ marrow. Don’t forget the acne. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/36 "2015-12-03T00:13:35Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > (The houris are supposed to be able to restore their virginity at the man’s whim.) _“As you were !”_ ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/37 "2015-12-03T00:20:03Z")
This should end all the debate regarding Paradise + Virgins. [EMAIL=“[Imgur: The magic of the Internet](http://imgur.com/nj28gTR)”] ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/38 "2015-12-03T00:28:29Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Goat schmoat. Come back a healthy Triple Crown winning stallion. Three years of racing and then a lifetime of pampering in a stable fancier than 98% of America’s housing, having the finest females of your species regularly brought to you. And you’re hung like a horse. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/39 "2015-12-03T00:29:14Z")
> [@Sahirrnee](#): > > Oh great! Seventy-two fumblers who will be so excited they won’t last more than two minutes each, with skin so transparent I can see all the _SEXY_ marrow. That’s why you need 72 of them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194/40 "2015-12-03T00:41:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth Jami` at-Tirmidhi, via **coremelt** : > > Here’s some relevant quotes: > "A houri is a most beautiful young woman with a transparent body. The marrow of her bones is visible like the interior lines of pearls and rubies. She looks like red wine in a white glass. She is of white color, and free from the routine physical disabilities of an ordinary woman such as menstruation, menopause, urinal and offal discharge, child bearing and the related pollution. A houri is a girl of tender age, having large breasts which are round (pointed), and not inclined to dangle. Houris dwell in palaces of splendid surroundings. > > — Al-Tirmidhi, Jami` at-Tirmidhi So I guess if you’re into watersports, you’re just out of luck. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-72-virgins-waiting-for-you-in-paradise/739194.md?page=3)