Last Friday, within the span of two hours, I went from orgasms to prayer.

Calm down; it wasn’t nearly as scandalous as it sounds.

Last week, Northwestern celebrated two integral parts of most of our lives: Sex Week and Religious Awareness Week.

Despite being a former member of College Feminists, I’d never attended a Sex Week lecture. And the last time I was in a church was Thanksgiving, and before that about eight years. (I’ve never gotten over Jillian Getman stealing the part of Mary in the Christmas pageant from me – but moving on.)

So I went to Harris Hall to learn about The Orgasm Gap and then I went to Hillel for Shabbat services. (Disclaimer: I know there are other religions at NU besides Judaism, but once you’ve been called a shiksa on more than one occasion, you get curious.)

The transition didn’t seem weird.

There’s something strangely appropriate about studying sex and religion together. Think about it. Sex can be about procreation and generation. Sex can be about rejuvenation and expressing an emotional connection. Sex can be restorative.

Well, so can religion and a connection with God, gods, goddess, deities, what have you.

PICK THE PAPER BACK UP. I’m not blaspheming here. Stay with me.

Religion at its heart advocates finding and deserving a life beyond the physical. In most Christian religions, the afterlife represents fulfillment and complete acceptance of God’s love and laws. It’s an emotional, metaphysical connection to God. It’s restorative, taking away troubles of earthly life. It generates renewed faith.

In other religions, the afterlife might be reincarnation – literally rebirth, which probably happened after someone had sex. For others, the individual only remains in a cycle of life, death and rebirth while possessing physical desire. When the soul frees itself from desire, then it can exit the cycle. In Islam, those who attain entrance to Paradise enter a world populated by, among other things, virgins.

I’m an English major; I can tell you that language matters. The words we use to say what we mean affect the way people interpret our messages.

As a society, we tend to stifle conversations about sex and religion. Or assume that precepts from other eras still remain so strong that sex and religion must remain separate. Or keep carefully cultivated ideas about sex: No sex before marriage. Sex only for procreation. Sex as sin. But the truth is that much of the same language we use to define sexual experience resonates with language used to talk about religious experience.

But think about it: In Christianity, Mary became pregnant with the son of God, setting off a catalyst so monumental that we still set up our timelines with B.C. and A.D. One new life founded a major religion, one firmly rooted in the concepts of birth, rebirth, generation and eternal life. Human reproduction mirrors this same holy cycle, and let’s face it, there was only one immaculate conception.

Medill senior Christina Alexander can be reached at [email protected].