Larry:

I, too, am suspicious of people who view sex as a tool of the devil, but I think it may be a bit unfair of you to lump Tolkien with this crowd. Yes, he was a conservative catholic, born in the 19th century. But he was also an intelligent, sophisticated man who fathered four children and, no doubt, enjoyed it. I feel safe in saying that Tolkien did not view sex as inherently evil, (if anything quite the reverse!), but felt that our passions could sometimes lead us "astray". His letters to his son are realistic and forthright. I am not in Tolkien's camp, but I cannot dismiss him as simple or backward.

Still, I agree with you that sex has more to do with heaven than with hell. And this gives me an excuse to quote another great author: Mark Twain. In "Letters from the Earth" Satan travels to earth and is amazed by its inhabitants. He writes a series of letters back to his fellow archangels Michael and Gabriel, and in one passage describes a curious omission from the Christian view of heaven.

"...Now then, you have the facts. You know what the human race enjoys, and what it doesn't enjoy. It has invented a heaven, out of its own head, all by itself: guess what it is like! In fifteen hundred eternities you couldn't do it. The ablest mind known to you or me in fifty million aeons couldn't do it. Very well, I will tell you about it.

"First of all, I recall to your attention the extraordinary fact with which I began. To wit, that the human being, like the immortals, naturally places sexual intercourse far and away above all other joys - yet he has left it out of heaven! The very thought of it excites him; opportunity sets him wild; in this state he will risk life, reputation, everything - even his queer heaven itself - to make good that opportunity and ride it to the overwhelming climax. From youth to middle age all men and all women prize copulation above all other pleasures combined, yet it is actually as I have said: it is not in their heaven; prayer takes its place.

"They prize it thus highly; yet, like all their so-called "boons," it is a poor thing. At its very best and longest the act is brief beyond imagination - the imagination of an immortal, I mean. In the matter of repetition the man is limited - oh, quite beyond immortal conception. We who continue the act and its supremest ecstasies unbroken and without withdrawal for centuries, will never be able to understand or adequately pity the awful poverty of these people in that rich gift which, possessed as we possess it, makes all other possessions trivial and not worth the trouble of invoicing."

Once I start quoting Twain, it is very hard to stop. I urge all of you to seek out and read "Letters from the Earth"!