[CA Conservative]

Do you agree celibacy is the Christian ideal based on Jesus and Paul?

No, I don't think it is the "ideal", meaning the goal that one should strive for. I think there are some whom God gifts with both the desire and ability to remain single and devote themselves to ministry. But even as Jesus says, it is a hard thing. And to say that singleness is the "ideal" would make God a liar when He said "It is NOT GOOD for man to be alone."

[metmom]

No, I don't think it is the "ideal", meaning the goal that one should strive for. I think there are some whom God gifts with both the desire and ability to remain single and devote themselves to ministry. But even as Jesus says, it is a hard thing. And to say that singleness is the "ideal" would make God a liar when He said "It is NOT GOOD for man to be alone."

Yup. The whole marriage and one flesh thing was GOD's idea, not man's.

And that was before the Fall.

It would turn God into a cruel prankster to give men and women the strong desire for sexual intimacy and then tell them they're better off and it pleases Him more if they try to suppress it and not obey His command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.