One of the topics with which Christianity has had a complicated relationship is sex. While some religions have embraced and celebrated it with one or more gods and goddesses dedicated to the subject or have even gone much further with orgies in temples, Christianity has often gone to the opposite extreme. Sexual intercourse is treated like an unfortunate, dirty and even sinful necessity to enable the production of children.

The Bible mostly mentions sex negatively, for example where it refers to acts of fornication, adultery or prostitution. Even where it is between married heterosexual couples, it is more of a grudging acceptance of the need. Consider Paul’s take on it:

“5 Don’t refuse to meet each other’s needs unless you both agree for a short period of time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come back together again so that Satan might not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I’m saying this to give you permission; it’s not a command. 7 I wish all people were like me…

8 I’m telling those who are single and widows that it’s good for them to stay single like me. 9 But if they can’t control themselves, they should get married, because it’s better to marry than to burn with passion.” (1 Corinthians 7:5–9)

The one book where sex is treated very positively, the Song of Solomon, talks about two lovers rejoicing in their intimacy.

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!…For your love is better than wine…The king has brought me into his chambers…I am black and beautiful…his fruit was sweet to my taste…Your two breasts are like two fawns” (extracts from Song of Solomon)

Inevitably, rather than taking this erotic love poem as a celebration of sex itself, it has been assumed to be an allegory about Christ and his bride, the Church. It would be too scandalous for it to be “nothing, really, but a poem about extravagant lovemaking, male and female oral sex, yearning and searching and hiding and finding, all between two unmarried people, one dark-skinned, and one light (where) breasts are compared to fawns; a man’s penis as sweet fruit and his genitalia as a bag of myrrh; the woman’s as a garden of pomegranates that should be eaten; lips and mouths are honey and milk.” ( The Sultry Song of Solomon)

So how has Christianity come to treat sexual intercourse almost like something dirty to be avoided if at all possible? If you imagine human sex in the abstract, then it is a beautiful thing. However, when you look at its mechanics it becomes apparent why it might seem troubling to some Christians.

Firstly, the mechanics are broadly similar for humans and animals which for those who like to put humankind on a pedestal above the animal kingdom must seem offensive — that a human does it in much the same way as a pig or donkey must surely mean that sex does not belong on the podium but must be something base.

Secondly, there is the issue of God creating such a crude mechanism. It’s hard for some to picture the creator of the universe dreaming up such a seemingly comical method of reproduction, seeing it function in animals and then assigning it to humans.

There is a way in which the mechanics of sex can be seen as awe inspiring without retreating to the abstract. That is to consider the mind blowing idea that God set up the rules governing the universe to enable this mechanism to evolve over more than a billion years on a small insignificant planet. Realising we are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things is humbling and unfortunately for some humiliating, but knowing that we are the product of a remarkable process happening over an unimaginably long timescale can allow us to once again celebrate the simple beautiful mechanism we share with the animal kingdom of which we are a part.