To counter misinformation in another thread, I hope Shrek will back me up here to confirm that sex is not, in fact, a sin.

God never EVER said "Don't have sex" - he said the opposite. He said "Go forth and multiply". He even says things like Jewish men should not be called out to battle for the first year after their marriage!

What God DOES say is that fornication is bad - and put on that whatever definition you will. At the very least, that means outside of marriage. Shrek and I might include other variations.

God WANTS you to find the right person to have sex with - and enjoy it! He didn't invent it for no reason! It's fun for a reason! If he just wanted us to do it for procreational purposes, it would not be fun ...

Please use your logic when thinking about God. Please don't use man's logic - that is, that religion is for controlling people/women/is the cause of all wars ever ever ever/blah blah blah.

Yes, thank you AlexSparks.    I agree.

I particularly agree with your final comment concerning the tired old ill-founded statements which are regularly trotted out as some kind of argument against faith and religion.

And for Protestants.... married couples can have it purely for pleasure

I know two who aren't going to have any kids, unless the surgery is a failure.... I reckon it is hard on the missus sometimes

Sex within marriage is an excellent way of maintaining closeness within a relationship.
Oh, and I agree with previous posters...
When people attack religion, more often than not they do so without understanding it. They build up a stereotypical caricature of faith as based on little more than prejudice; and delight in knocking it down. Religion is an easy target these days; and it's far easier to scapegoat religion than to look deeper into things and find the real cause of the world's strife.

I back up Alex Sparks.

God is mysterious. Somehow we have people with different needs who aren't heterosexual, Mom thought God made them. And then God says not to do what comes naturally to them. It seemed to Mom God was setting them up. Plus all the teenagers having sex before marriage..... why give people a desire and then punish them for exercising it?

And I'd like to add, and I'd like to know, especially when they are nice guys/nice girls and they aren't hurting anybody?

This is confusing my little heterosexual Christian brain.  The only thing I can expect is I will get a chance to ask God later.

This is kind of like Galileo. I open my eyes and I see gay people who are otherwise human beings, have very much the same mixture of good and imperfections we all do. Many of my compatriots do NOT open their eyes and only permit themselves to see people who are only absolutely evil.

Shrek, not EVERY teenager has sex, I have made it to 18 and I'm still very much a virgin. I think alot of conspiracy comes from how people have forgotten how to treat sex.

What I have learned in childhood was: Sex is a very sacred act between 2 people (for my orientation, I'll use man and woman) who love each other. It is literally the closest 2 people can be. I also want to wait and decide wisely to whom I want to give my virginity to. Remember, you're only a virgin once, and once it's gone you can't get it back. Also my name is Kathryn and the meaning is : Pure and virginal.

That's why I want to stay a virgin until my wedding night or I'm engaged. I wanna give my virginity to someone who will love me forever!

Point conceded, sorry Kathryn. I don't entirely regret being a virgin under the circumstances, and I don't want to waste my virginity on the wrong woman who will treat it the wrong way. I think I will make her pay more than a promise of marriage... and I would understand if she asked the same of me.

call me katy, Kathryn means I'm deep Sh*t

There is no logic when thinking about god, because god isn't real, just like all of the other gods of other religions. The day the world realizes this is the day the world will be filled with free-thinking people who don't feel the need to start pointless wars and hate homosexuals.

Read the bible sometime. It's all fairy-tale crap which is as (if not more) implausible then the content of the books I read to my niece. There's no logic in that garbage.

By the way, I say the above as a former Lutheran Christian.

Christianity was a way of controlling people in more superstitious times. At this point in time it is extremely outdated and has lost it's purpose.

Imo religion isn't the cause of that. It's just the most powerful excuse for it, that exists. Since there are an awful lot of vague sentiments and contradictions in religion, if you decide to take some of it literally then you can twist the meaning into pretty much anything.

I disagree. Religion has never been a reason for controlling people. It HAS been used for that by humans, but not God. And being old fashioned doesn't make it wrong. Religion has not lost its purpose - it may have no meaning for you at this point in your life, but for all the billions of people who hold to a faith, it's very real and meaningful and purposeful.

I believe in God but don't fight anyone because of my religion or hate homosexuals. These are the exact outdated and oldfashioned excuses I'm talking about. Religion has NEVER started a war. It has, however, been the excuse for humans to start wars which are always about something else - usually land or power or both.

Can I just say at this point that this thread was not started with the intention of going over very old ground about our diverse religious beliefs on this forum? What we're discussing here (I've just realised after my last post!) has been covered oodles of times elsewhere.

I started this thread to point out that neither the Bible nor God have ever said sex is a sin.