The vast majority of our lives will be spent in eternity (e.g. Heaven), so why will we have reproductive systems?

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Sarcelle said:
Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from.

God however should not be blamed for people’s bigotry.

Anyway, I doubt there will be bigotry or hatred in heaven.
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I suppose so.

I should probably worry about getting there in the first place.
 
You could ask the same question about your tongue. If you don’t need to eat then why have a tongue? Is there air in heaven? Why need lungs? Our bodies are adapted for life on earth. Our heavenly bodies will be different. How much different? I don’t know. But, Jesus’ resurrected body could walk through walls. So, our bodies will be going from one plane of existence to a higher plane of existence. A caterpillar has no need to walk when it becomes a butterfly.
 
fisherman_carl said:
The purpose of sex organs is obvious. If there was no afterlife and you just died you could still ask the same question. If we are all going to be dead for most of Eternity than why have gender? Obviously, it is for this life, and for procreation. God only knows what Eternity brings.
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I was at a waterpark once and was sitting on a bench watching everyone walk by. I saw fat people, skinny people, tall and thin people, short and fat people, people of all shapes and sizes and then it hit me. Surely when the Scriptures say we are made in the image and likeness of God, it wasn’t our physical bodies that were being described, but our spiritual ones - our souls. Surely God does not look like the physical specimens I saw that day - egaaad! (And I include my short and chubby self! )
 
fisherman_carl said:
You could ask the same question about your tongue. If you don’t need to eat then why have a tongue? Is there air in heaven? Why need lungs? Our bodies are adapted for life on earth. Our heavenly bodies will be different. How much different? I don’t know. But, Jesus’ resurrected body could walk through walls. So, our bodies will be going from one plane of existence to a higher plane of existence. A caterpillar has no need to walk when it becomes a butterfly.
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It still has legs, though.

Although the “spiritual body” is a real body, it does** not** replace the dear old human soma. The Resurrectional Body is in fact both.

Our LORD ate after His resurrection. And if we would have voices in Heaven, that will require breath, in some sense (as would our sense of smell).

ICXC NIKA!
 
It’s not the bigots, per se, I’m averse to. I’m a sinner, too, and we all have things to atone for and attachments to sins to get rid of.

It’s the idea that there is even a racial difference to begin with. That a system by which people are categorized and placed in hierarchies will be carried over in heaven.
 
Adonia said:
I was at a waterpark once and was sitting on a bench watching everyone walk by. I saw fat people, skinny people, tall and thin people, short and fat people, people of all shapes and sizes and then it hit me. Surely when the Scriptures say we are made in the image and likeness of God, it wasn’t our physical bodies that were being described, but our spiritual ones - our souls. Surely God does not look like the physical specimens I saw that day - egaaad! (And I include my short and chubby self! )
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We should not devalue our human bodies by our standards of appearance, most of which are socially determined, or tied to such factors as sexual attractivity, which has no role in Heaven.

The human body, in full movement, is a very elegant being. It is not primarily a surface to hang fashions on or present before others. With everlasting life shining through the skin, **everybody **will look amazing.

ICXC NIKA!
 
GEddie said:
We should not devalue our human bodies by our standards of appearance, most of which are socially determined, or tied to such factors as sexual attractivity, which has no role in Heaven.

The human body, in full movement, is a very elegant being. It is not primarily a surface to hang fashions on or present before others. With everlasting life shining through the skin, **everybody **will look amazing.

ICXC NIKA!
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I was not thinking of any sexual attractivity as I was sitting there. I just find it hard to believe that these are the bodies being talked about as being made in the “image and likeness of God”.
 
Adonia said:
They knew him by his spirit. Have you ever met someone and felt an unexplainable spiritual connection?
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I’m not sure that this is true. John 20:26–28 has Thomas feeling the wounds Jesus suffered during his passion. This would strongly imply that Jesus’s glorified body was modeled after his non-glorified body. Why keep the wounds but rid everything else?

It’s also worth noting that Catholics do not believe that humans are pure spirit as opposed to Angels and Demons. Neither do we believe that humans are animals like dogs or elephants which are purely physical in nature. Humans are a unique combination of flesh and spirit. That’s why what we do with our body can affect our soul and vice versa.
 
Adonia said:
Where does it say we will have a human type gender in heaven? Our bodies will be of the spiritual type, not the human type.
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We will remain human. Our bodies will remain fully human even though they would be glorified. They would be what human bodies were meant to be from the beginning. The glory element doesn’t make them non human.

I think we would keep our gender because that’s who we are.

The aspects of the body for the purpose of having children are so that here in this life it would be possible to have children. Its God’s Will for them to be so that these souls could live with Him in Heaven. But there marriage won’t exist anymore because marriage is a sign of the Heavenly reality.
 
Adonia said:
I was not thinking of any sexual attractivity as I was sitting there. I just find it hard to believe that these are the bodies being talked about as being made in the “image and likeness of God”.
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You are right. God doesn’t have a body. He is immaterial. Being created in the image and likeness of God is talking about having immortal rational souls with the God given powers of intellect and will.
 
fisherman_carl said:
You are right. God doesn’t have a body. He is immaterial. Being created in the image and likeness of God is talking about having immortal rational souls with the God given powers of intellect and will.
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Well, he must have SOME form, if he didnt, why would he have told Moses, no man can look upon my face, but he did allow Moses to see his back as he passed by.
 
It just seems odd to me because so often we perceive this life as the “real” life where relationships are formed, where we form our personalities, etc… yet this is not the “real thing” yet. Our lives are in their infant stage and do not mature until eternity. Yet what is the point of having a hundred years of earthly life with sex, marriage, relationships – all for billions and billions and billions of years after that will have none of this?
 
GEddie said:
The gender of our bodies informs everything from our voice, to our senses, to bodybuild and mind. It only makes sense that it will continue to inform our being in the spiritual body.

ICXC NIKA
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Except for those who perceive themselves very strongly to have be a different gender.
 
fisherman_carl said:
You could ask the same question about your tongue. If you don’t need to eat then why have a tongue? Is there air in heaven? Why need lungs? Our bodies are adapted for life on earth. Our heavenly bodies will be different. How much different? I don’t know. But, Jesus’ resurrected body could walk through walls. So, our bodies will be going from one plane of existence to a higher plane of existence. A caterpillar has no need to walk when it becomes a butterfly.
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Good point. Indeed, I could have asked these questions too.

I think the problem is that humans weren’t meant to suffer and die. Adam and Eve only died because of their fall. And we inherited that.

Yet they were created with lungs, tongues, etc. before the Fall. So it seems God intends us to have organic bodily operations?
 
catholic1seeks said:
Except for those who perceive themselves very strongly to have be a different gender.
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There are people who strongly believe themself to be cats or dogs, but that does not make them other than human.

Even if a male-bodied individual believes himself to be a woman, the maleness of his genes continues to inform his bodybuild, voice and other attributes. The feelings do not veto the solid body.

There can be no ‘wrong body’, because each human soul is formed in and for the specific body.

God does not make mistakes.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
There are people who strongly believe themself to be cats or dogs, but that does not make them other than human.

Even if a male-bodied individual believes himself to be a woman, the maleness of his genes continues to inform his bodybuild, voice and other attributes. The feelings do not veto the solid body.

There can be no ‘wrong body’, because each human soul is formed in and for the specific body.

God does not make mistakes.

ICXC NIKA
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I’d like to meet someone who thinks they are a cat or dog.

My point was that it is not black and white. This “maleness” and “femaleness” is generally true. But it’s not true for everyone. It is not experienced the same way. There is no “right” way to be male or female. We say there is complementarity between the sexes, but it’s hard to see to what extent this is beyond the physical level (biological/reproductive). For everyone has his or her own personality, and social roles change, as does the culture that informs it.

In other words, a guy and girl can engage in sex, and this is a pretty universal experience and operates the same for basically anyone who does it. So in this sense, “maleness” and “femaleness” are apparent in the biological activity. But beyond this, I would like to know how one ought to be “male” or “female.” I think it is very hard to describe.
 
catholic1seeks said:
I’d like to meet someone who thinks they are a cat or dog.

My point was that it is not black and white. This “maleness” and “femaleness” is generally true. But it’s not true for everyone. It is not experienced the same way. There is no “right” way to be male or female. We say there is complementarity between the sexes, but it’s hard to see to what extent this is beyond the physical level (biological/reproductive). For everyone has his or her own personality, and social roles change, as does the culture that informs it.

In other words, a guy and girl can engage in sex, and this is a pretty universal experience and operates the same for basically anyone who does it. So in this sense, “maleness” and “femaleness” are apparent in the biological activity. But beyond this, I would like to know how one ought to be “male” or “female.” I think it is very hard to describe.
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Social roles are overvalued.

The OP was about the life everlasting. For that, we will have our soul and, by resurrection, our bodies, but not our social or societal identities. And our feelings evaporate at death, if not before.

There will be the soul (including the mind) and the body. And God, again, does not err in assigning one to the other.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
Social roles are overvalued.

The OP was about the life everlasting. For that, we will have our soul and, by resurrection, our bodies, but not our social or societal identities. And our feelings evaporate at death, if not before.

There will be the soul (including the mind) and the body. And God, again, does not err in assigning one to the other.

ICXC NIKA
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But I’m questioning what “maleness” and “femaleness” means beyond the bodily complementarity in reproductive sex.
 
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