What You Believe Influences How you Value Sex

Recently I had a chance to further examine the theory of Creationism and as a result, I deeply pondered my beliefs as a Christian.  I reflected on how the theory of Creationism suggests that a loving God intricately and purposely created the world and everything in it.  God's purposeful design, I believe, includes His design for sex to be an intimate and enjoyable part of marriage.  While on a trip, I saw a sign that read "Love Stuff Cheap Smokes."  As a Christian sex therapist, my beliefs of sex being purposefully created by God for married couples to enjoy seemed diminished, even cheapened, by this idea of sex as "love stuff" paired with cheap cigarettes.  What you believe influences how you value sex. 

In the December 2014 issue of Psychology Today, author Dwyer Gunn reviews popular theories and research about the function and purpose of female orgasms from an evolutionary perspective of human development.  Gunn writes the following: "Considered by some the greatest mystery in the evolution of human sexuality, scientists have spent decades trying to explain its (female orgasm) origin."  Several theories are reviewed including a theory that suggests that "orgasm enables women to covertly evaluate and select high-quality males in order to ensure the fitness of resulting offspring."  Other theories suggest that the purpose of female orgasm includes that it helps increase the odds of conception, that it helps to select a mate who is willing to selflessly work hard to bring a woman to orgasm and thus indicates his willingness to invest in children, and that orgasm may be an incentive for prehistoric women who faced high mortality risk during childbirth to engage in sexual activity.  Ultimately, the article wittingly concludes that the "long story of understanding female orgasm has yet to reach its climax."

From a Judeo Christian viewpoint, I would argue that the function of female orgasm is for the purpose of pleasure.  While the purpose of female orgasm from an evolutionary perspective may hold some relevance, experiencing pleasure is simply a valued experience in Judeo Christian beliefs.  In the Jewish practice of the Sabbath, married couples are encouraged to delight in marital sexual intimacy as part of their Sabbath practices.  Furthermore, the enjoyment of sexual intimacy for a husband and wife can be a worshipful reflection of the intratrinitarian bliss of God which is the communion, oneness, mystery, and intimacy of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit being three in one.  When sexual intimacy is viewed as God's purposeful, enjoyable, and worshipful activity created for a husband and wife to enjoy, the purpose of female orgasm and marital sexual intimacy in general can clearly be enjoyed for what it is designed to be: intimately connecting and pleasurable.

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