Do you believe there will be sexual activity and relationships in Heaven or paradise?

[KlinkyCoder]

Whatever you believe comes after this life, do you believe or hope you can have sexual activity or relationships with someone up there? Or will everyone just be made platonic even against their will?

Usually, Christians believe that there is nothing like this in Heaven as such because of the great beauty of the beatific vision. I suspect that a lot of Christian ethics and doctrine is opposed to the idea of sexual attraction itself and sees it as dirty, wrong, or sinful, at least on the subconscious level. Other groups like the Mormons and Muslims do explicitly talk about there being heavenly or paradise forms of eros in the life after.

[BCRanger10]

I just answered a similar question just a few days ago!

No.

You need your body in order to have sex. When we die, the soul departs the body and goes either to Heaven or Hell. They will be reunited at the Final Judgment (1 Corinthians 15.35-57; verse 52 especially). Beyond the body, sex has three parts: 1) Anticipation and desire, 2) the act itself, and 3) fulfillment. Obviously, being without a body makes all three of those impossible for sex in Heaven.

Then, add on that Jesus said that some people renounce marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 20.12). If they renounce marriage, then that includes sex. Essentially, marriage is lesser way of life than celibacy (this DOES NOT mean marriage is bad at all, just that celibacy is a greater good). Furthermore, two chapters later, He also says that "in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage". Effectively, the marriage bond no longer exists in Heaven; it ends only at the death of one spouse.

Lastly though, if God is the Alpha and the Omega and there is no one higher or greater than He, then the three parts of sex I mentioned earlier are infinitely exceeded by being in the presence of God, or being in what Catholics call the Beatific Vision, as you referred to. Sex, in its proper context, which is and only can be marriage, is therefore a means to an end.

Now I want to clarify something very important here. Sexual attraction is not by itself sinful or wrong. It's the framework on which a deeper and more mature love is built. A couple SHOULD feel that desire for each other. Otherwise, the marriage doesn't really have much life to it.

I plan to write a MyTake about this sooner or later (I have a couple of others to work on in the meantime). Keep a lookout for it.

[KlinkyCoder]

And there are so many people down here that want such experience but somehow never got to have it. There are going to be millions of pissed off people that died virgins or without any contact.

[Anonymous]

Agnostic, so there's no specific afterlife I believe in. I hope for reincarnation, in which case, of course sex will continue to exist.

In a case of heaven or any similar equivalent, I think it hardly makes sense for there not to be some form of sex. It is enjoyable to humans and God created us intentionally with that enjoyment, so why would a paradise for humans not include something humans were created to enjoy?

In a case of some form of purgatory... No idea, really. Probably not, which would be very disappointing.

[strateguy632]

no, and those hoping for 70 virgins will be disappointed.