Felix wrote:
Avoiding sexually transmitted diseases (some kill)
Avoiding unwanted pregnancy (kill, or have a big responsibility)
Avoiding emotional traumas (sometimes causing people to kill themselves)
Avoiding Hell (you're wagering our soul)
Strengthening the bond between you and your spouse, and potentially having a level of intimacy that is impossible for others to have.
I see a couple threads around here on Christopher Hitchens, who eventually died a slow and miserable death resulting from his futile effort to find happiness in the bottom of a bottle and a pack of cigarettes. Atheists insist they're happy, but their lifestyles don't show it. Sex provides only a moment of pleasure, and they don't even get as much sex as someone who respects the institution of marriage.
Yea, because all christians are fit and healthy right? Just like all atheists are fat, sick, alcoholics who are unhealthy? Christopher Hitchens found happiness in writing and passionately fought theocracy. The reason christopher hitchens made so many theists angry is that he made arguments they could not answer. I think they realised there was a lot of truth in what he said.
Why do christians demonize sex? In fact, all religions do. We are made to feel disgusted by our sexuality. Young pubescent boys are made to feel bad for having sexual thoughts. I.e thought crime. By their very nature they are sinful and disgusting and lustful beings, not developing young men discovering their sexuality for the first time...
When I was a christian I used to go to homegroup and I raised the question of masturbation (as I was a teenager) and if god thinks it's wrong. My home group leaders and peers all told me it fuels lust and that I should never do it. I felt horrible because I KNEW masturbating was not something I could stop doing. I was VERY sexually curious. I felt so guilty just because I was having sexual thoughts.
As to your implication that happiness comes from god (I talk of your example that Hitchens sought happiness in a bottle not in god). I can answer that with full conviction. I was a christian and struggled with all the big questions, with faith, with why god left us shoddy evidence for his existence, with why we were so judgemental of people, with the fear of going to hell, and so after I left the faith I had never felt so relieved and free. It was like a weight of my soldiers, I didn't feel controlled or bound. I could now have MY OWN opinions and convictions, not what was chosen for me or what was written in a 2000 year old book. I could think for myself. I am the happiness I have ever been now, I have a beautiful girlfriend and we have an amazing sexual relationship. Not one part of me thinks that what I am doing is wrong. I love her and she loves me.
Sex is beautiful, sex is wonderful and the sooner this religious induced stigma around sex is removed then we can never fully appreciated the amazing physical act of love.
You can't tell a loving adult couple that they must not have sex because they don't have a piece of paper that says they love each other.
What did the cavemen do? Get married and have sex?