Spud your comments are silly, sex is also for PLEASURE, what on earth is wrong with that, providing you are in an adult, in a consensual relationship, not cheating on a partner and taking sensible precautions?
I agree Floo, I would add though that just being in a consensual relationship isn't enough. There need to be witnesses to the consent being given, to avoid claims of rape and to bind a couple together to prevent cheating. Marriage, in other words.
This bit of the thread started because L-J said that a man having sex with a man he loves is no different from a man and his wife.
Can I quote from from Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Contra Gentiles", Book 3, Chapter 122:
"... every emission of the semen is contrary to the good of man, which takes place in a way whereby generation is impossible"
"...(say, for instance, one chose to walk on his hands, or to use his feet for something usually done with the hands) ... man’s good is not much opposed by such inordinate use. However, the inordinate emission of semen is incompatible with the natural good; namely, the preservation of the species. Hence, after the sin of homicide whereby a human nature already in existence is destroyed, this type of sin appears to take next place, for by it the generation of human nature is precluded."
You can love someone without having sex with them.
And it is not possible to justify a man having sex with a man on the grounds that it will enhance the relationship, because it causes harm (in the way Aquinas explains above).
Whilst not directly injuring anyone (neither does theft, for example) homosexual acts, like contraception, deprive the body of its capacity for preservation of mankind and therefore cause a kind of harm.