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

[GEddie]

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

And I’m ignoring the “social identity” aspect, as our societies do not follow us through death.

Again, M/F informs the entire body, including senses and mind. Reproductive behavior is only part of the package wrapped in the human skin.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Strydersroom]

It has been brought sharply into Focus just how precious each moment of life is. There is no guarantee of an afterlife and no one knows for sure what happens when you die. Therefore, it is Paramount that we are kind and live each moment as if it could be our last in peace understanding and love for our friends, families, neighbors and yes enemies. Tomorrow is promised to no one.

 

[catholic1seeks]

And I’m ignoring the “social identity” aspect, as our societies do not follow us through death.

Again, M/F informs the entire body, including senses and mind. Reproductive behavior is only part of the package wrapped in the human skin.

ICXC NIKA

What does it mean, that maleness or femaleness informs the entire body?

For example, no two personalities are alike. Some men can be “effeminate” and some women can be, well, “masculine”.

 

[davidv]

Except for those who perceive themselves very strongly to have be a different gender.

Perceptions are often wrong, so this sounds like a very very weak position.

 

[Usagi]

Earthly life is but a spec for the eternity we were meant for in union with God. That is the Christian perspective. Yet in Heaven, we will not be married, as Christ says. Presumably, there will not be sex, either, or reproduction. Is this a fair assumption?

So what is the point of gender, especially biologically, in Heaven? Why would we need a reproductive system or sexual difference if the vast span of our life (in eternity) will have no need for it?

We need a reproductive system to make more humans during our life on Earth. That is to say, more potential citizens of Heaven.

One of us might live only a hundred years or less, but the species has persisted for much longer and we don’t know how much more time will pass before the world ends.

The other (unitive) component of sexual intercourse is apparently meant as a foretaste of the closeness and joy we will have with God and everyone in Heaven. Heaven should be thought of as an expansion of our earthly existence, not a loss of some aspects. Whatever we have no need for will be replaced by the better version of which the earthly experience was only a hint.

 

[catholic1seeks]

Eternity for God is timeless.

We will experience time, for we are finite beings who will have bodies. We will be able to think, which involves time, as well as move about, which involves change.

The point is — Our earthly life is but a small shimmer of what we are meant for. Our lives may have started 20, 40, or 60 years ago, but they will stretch on forever.

What you are implying is precisely the point of this thread. You seem to suggest that our earthly life is utterly different from the heavenly one. This life has time, the next life does not, you state. Yet Adam and Eve experienced time, and they were not meant to fall from their created state. Heaven is the fulfillment of the Earth gone awry.

 

[catholic1seeks]

We need a reproductive system to make more humans during our life on Earth. That is to say, more potential citizens of Heaven.

One of us might live only a hundred years or less, but the species has persisted for much longer and we don’t know how much more time will pass before the world ends.

The other (unitive) component of sexual intercourse is apparently meant as a foretaste of the closeness and joy we will have with God and everyone in Heaven. Heaven should be thought of as an expansion of our earthly existence, not a loss of some aspects. Whatever we have no need for will be replaced by the better version of which the earthly experience was only a hint.

Still doesn’t make much sense. We were meant for Heaven. That is where things “get real.” That is the human being fully living. Think of the paradise/garden in Genesis, which represents the intimate union Adam and Eve were made in and meant for. They were not meant to fall out of that state.

So everything needs to be put into the heavenly perspective. Earthly life often seems like the “more real” life, for we have this popular conception of heaven as a fluffy place of clouds, winged angels, and endless worship – with a few golden architectural pieces thrown in. But Christian teaching only makes sense if we regard Heaven as the more fulfilled, more realized existence we currently have.

However, the issue is, our bodily design seems to work contrary to that – for the sexual complementarity seems meant for earth alone: In reproductive sex and marriage, which will not last in Heaven, and in other aspects as well.

 

[GEddie]

We will have knowledge, but not per se thought, which is the error-prone process by which our present human minds acquire knowledge.

Knowing does not require time; in the absence of organic brain malfunction, which is physical (including normal head wear and tear), once something is known it stays known.

Movement as we know it requires time, but there are other movements. Light moves, yet at the speed of light there is no time. And that’s just Einsteinian. Spiritually, Bilocation is a form of movement that is simultaneous.

Also, we should not per se assume that **collinear **time, as experienced by our minded bodies, is the only temporal dimension.

ICXC NIKA

 

[catholic1seeks]

Eternity for God is timeless.

We will experience time, for we are finite beings who will have bodies. We will be able to think, which involves time, as well as move about, which involves change.

AUTHORITY PLEASE

The point is — Our earthly life is but a small shimmer of what we are meant for. Our lives may have started 20, 40, or 60 years ago, but they will stretch on forever.

What you are implying is precisely the point of this thread. You seem to suggest that our earthly life is utterly different from the heavenly one. This life has time, the next life does not, you state. Yet Adam and Eve experienced time, and they were not meant to fall from their created state. Heaven is the fulfillment of the Earth gone awry.

Reply to the “Authority Please” …

Here is something very basic from Peter Kreeft, who is very orthodox and well known among Catholic philosophers and writers.

1. Will there be time in Heaven?

Eternity does not mean simply endless time; that would be boring. Nor does it mean something strictly timeless; that would be inhuman. Time is part of our consciousness, and God does not tear up his plan for us; rather, he fulfills and transforms it.

I think eternity will include all time, as the dying see their whole life pass before them in perfect temporal order, not confusion, yet instantaneously—somewhat as you can do now when you call to mind a story you have read and know well. When you say “David Copperfield,” you mean all the Davids, in order, but you see them all at once, from the young David to the old David, because, having finished the story, you are outside it.
You are “after death” regarding David. One day you will be “after death” regarding yourself. Time now confines us. There is never enough of it. I think heavenly time will be like heavenly space: fully humanized and subject to the soul. Even now there are two kinds of time, as there are two kinds of space (space and place): chronos, or chronological time, material time, and kairos, or lived time, human time, time for some purpose measured by mind and will. Now, kairos is contained and constrained by chronos; there is seldom enough time to do justice to anything. In heaven this inside-out situation will be reversed, and chronological time will be contained and mastered by kairos, somewhat as even now playwrights and novelists master the time in their stories.

Our dissatisfaction with time, by the way, is a powerful piece of evidence that we are made for eternity. There is nothing more natural and all-pervasive in this world than time. Not only our bodies but our souls as well are immersed in time. Yet we complain about it. C. S. Lewis asks, “Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact not strongly suggest that they had not been, or were not destined always to be, aquatic creatures?” We long to step out of the sea of time onto the land of eternity, even though we do not really understand what eternity is!

peterkreeft.com/topics-more/35-faqs_eternity.htm

I hear and read this type of thing all the time from several orthodox Catholics, theologians, etc. Even more, time in heaven follows from the simple fact that we are human.

Even the angels experience some kind of time, for they are capable of moving from one thought to another – and that involves succession.

 

[catholic1seeks]

We will have knowledge, but not per se thought, which is the error-prone process by which our present human minds acquire knowledge.

Knowing does not require time; in the absence of organic brain malfunction, which is physical (including normal head wear and tear), once something is known it stays known.

Movement as we know it requires time, but there are other movements. Light moves, yet at the speed of light there is no time. And that’s just Einsteinian. Spiritually, Bilocation is a form of movement that is simultaneous.

Also, we should not per se assume that **collinear **time, as experienced by our minded bodies, is the only temporal dimension.

ICXC NIKA

Regardless, Heaven is not so different from Earth as to say we are in time now, only to be in eternity after death. That’s just not how it is, and it counters the idea of Heaven as the fulfillment of the present condition. We were created body-soul, and we were meant to be like that.

But how we experience time in heaven has little to do with the topic at hand.

 

[GEddie]

Regardless, Heaven is not so different from Earth as to say we are in time now, only to be in eternity after death. That’s just not how it is, and it counters the idea of Heaven as the fulfillment of the present condition. We were created body-soul, and we were meant to be like that.

But how we experience time in heaven has little to do with the topic at hand.

Not really, given that the OP concerning sexuality was based on just that: if Heavenly time were the same as we know, so that it is immeasurably **longer **than we know, why would we regain bodily propensities that are valuable only over our very short human duration.

As was pointed out, the everlasting life is not just a vastly ****longer ****version of the life we know.

ICXC NIKA

 

[IWantGod]

Earthly life is but a spec for the eternity we were meant for in union with God. That is the Christian perspective. Yet in Heaven, we will not be married, as Christ says. Presumably, there will not be sex, either, or reproduction. Is this a fair assumption?

So what is the point of gender, especially biologically, in Heaven? Why would we need a reproductive system or sexual difference if the vast span of our life (in eternity) will have no need for it?

You mean why will i have an outmoded penis in heaven?

Its an antique.

 

[truetofaith]

You mean why will i have an outmoded penis in heaven?

Its an antique.

Time to exit this Topic…bye!