The resurrection of the dead is taught officially by the Catholic church (and pretty well all Christian churches - it’s in the Nicene Creed). And that is certainly understood to mean not just a purely spiritual afterlife, but a material, bodily, corporeal (insert adjective of choice here) resurrection. The Catholic tradition is pretty strong on the point that human reality is body-and-soul, and accordingly that perfected humanity will have a bodily existence.
But beyond that the tradition is not at all specific. Remember, the risen Christ is undertstood to be really, bodily present in the Eucharist, and also in the Church. The implication of that is that the bodily reality of resurrected humanity isn’t necessarily confined to a torso-two-arms-two-legs model, so to speak.
So, will there be sex? There will be the perfection of bodily existence. The official line is that what perfected bodily existence means is at present beyond our experience, and therefore beyond our conception. If your image of perfected bodily existence involves plenty of sex then, yes, it will help you to understand resurrection if you think of it as involving plenty of sex. But this may be no more than analogical thinking.
But sex is sinful unless you’re trying to procreate with your spouse. Can dead people have zombie babies?
I thought the point of heaven was to bask in the glory of God forever and ever. Basically a big old drug high. But then again I shake my head when I read about “God’s vengeance.” I mean, really? Shouldn’t God be above that shit?
Sex is creative. (Hence the word “procreate”). It’s difficult to conceive of the resurrected having, or wanting to have, babies, but we will certainly have, and exercise, perfected creative powers, for the exercise of which sex is probably the best analogy we can have.
Ya gotta understand, *marsh, that in the Christian conception the resurrected aren’t dead. Or undead.
Why is that inconsistent with having sex?
Which certainly isn’t inconsistent with having sex. QED.
Yes, and actually the main cite was provided by Captain Amazing in the post before mine. If you mean from the RCC’s latest Catechism, I don’t have an English copy of it.
The problems His disciples had recognizing Christ after he resurrected are considered proof that Heavenly bodies aren’t exactly the same as earthly ones, too.
If that couple is under the law (the OT) then yes that and lots of other normal/natural things are sinful, for those under grace of Christ there is no sin.
Yes
It is to be in a glorious place forever, but it’s much more then that. It is an ever expanding universe of adventures, wonders that will grow Love inside a person more and more, shared most intimately with your eternal soul mate, taking love (and sex) to higher and higher levels. This balanced out with being a small child with lots of brothers and sisters and loving parents, all of who you adore and adore you, and your needs taken care of by your parents, no worries about food and technology or money, what you need is given freely to you. Your parents have the power and status of angels, and give you great gifts from above constantly. Your parents too are advancing in Love and you will be at their status one day and they will advance further (arch-angels), we will raise children as our angelic parents raised you, you will be angelic parents to your children, but you will always also be small children to your parents. You will be going on great adventures continuously, while sending your children on them too, ones you have completed long ago and now too easy for you. This pattern will go on forever as one evolves to higher and higher levels.
The vengeance of God is what happens when we refuse to follow the path of Love and God has protected us long enough and removes some of His protection so we can see that the path we were following is a dead end. Job is a great example of this, Job had to repent, and it took all that he suffered to realize it, but also note it was God removing a hedge of protection that didn’t allow Satan to touch Job till it was removed.
The vengeance of God is nothing more then getting some of what we deserve for not Loving as best as we know how to, because that’s what it takes to turn us around.
Or to put it another way, a child keeps picking up the cat by the tail time and time again, the parent (God) prevents the cat from scratching him and tries to instruct the child time and time again how to pick up the cat, the child doesn’t learn, so the parent allows the cat to give a few scratches to the child in the hopes that the child learns. That is ‘the wrath of God’ - removal of some protection.
And they’re ever so adorable when they start gumming on your head, trying to chew their way in to get at your sweet brains. Hurts when their teeth come in though.
In Heaven marriage won’t be necessary… God gave woman to man as a companion so he could be happy . In Heaven the happiness there will suffice and won’t need any of the earthly happiness as we know it. THis is my take on the question : JOY
UDS is actually giving the traditional, orthodox catholic teaching: we will have actual physical “perfected” bodies in the resurrection. There will be no marriage (per the quoted gospel passage in Matthew) but beyond that, we don’t know what it will be like. We won’t get hungry – maybe we won’t have a biological sexual desire either.
If anyone is seriously interested in the topic, I cannot strongly enough recommend Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright, one of the worlds foremost contemporary theologians. He debunks a lot of the extra-biblical mythology of the afterlife and takes a close look at the scriptural descriptions and church doctrine thoughout the centuries.
I realize this thread is turning increasingly Catholic/Christian, which is not unexpected, but Hinduism does not say that sex is only for procreation, and there are some stories that say Krishna didn’t just dance with the gopi (milkherd) girls. “Dance” has been a euphemism in many cultures.
And they do talk about the gods in our heaven lusting after one another - I know one of them got kicked out of heaven for lusting after Ganga.
Just to clarify, most non-Roman Catholic Christians don’t say that either. It’s peculiar to the RCC. Although just about all Christian traditions do teach that intercourse is only appropriate in the context of marriage, most do not limit it to procreative purposes.
Hey, other views welcome and I’d even say requested (I already know what I believe and what I’ve been taught), I sure wish there were more non-Christians answering!
Now that I have more time, and reinforcing what Skammer already said, while individual theologians and mystics have attempted to describe Heaven and Hell, the RCC as an entity doesn’t go into details. There’s the bit about being perfectly happy in Heaven and the bit about being absolutely unhappy in Hell, there’s the bit about resurrection being body and soul, there’s the bit about resurrected bodies being not quite the same as mortal bodies, there’s the bit about being in the presence of the Almighty, but the RCC doesn’t go into the detail of whether Heaven contains 144000 people or 7264301365197, whether the streets are made of lapis lazuli or mud, or whether there are streets. Some theologians say that all needs are fulfilled there; some say that mortal needs become irrelevant, in the same way that things which were enormous sources of worry for a child don’t even qualify as worries for a grown-up.
Sex as a source of pleasure? On one hand I’m not going to tell God how to do His job, and on the other you’re not likely to hear mention of this from a Catholic pulpit except to condemn fornication. Sex as something you do to fulfill a need? In Heaven needing doesn’t happen; in Hell needs can’t ever be fulfilled. This is not taken from the latest Catechism, it’s only my distillation of almost 40 years’ worth of sermons, readings and discussions.
And the RCC doesn’t quite say that sex is only for procreation. It says that making sex purposefully non-procreative is a sin, but not that sex needs to be procreative. A man throwing his seed on the mud is considered sinful; a known-sterile couple having sex is not.
