Circumcision

[Tallguy88]

For some reason I've forgotten, a guy at work got a circumcision at about age 50 and the reduction in pleasure was substantial.

It's more traumatic and a more difficult procedure the older you get. That might have something to do with it. It's one of the primary reasons it's done on infants: it heals easier and they don't remember it.

 

[Owen GB5]

Circumcision is not a sexual dysfunction unless it is performed incorrectly.

'Incorrectly' covers everything from 100 plus deaths per year from complications in the U.S.A. alone to the significant percentage of males who can never have a normal sexual relationship. While I do not, personally, know someone who has lost a child I do have person experience of victims who suffer major sexual dysfuction as a result of this surgery.

 

[Owen GB5]

Don't know. I only know our doctors say it has health benefits and no one I know who has been circumcised (statistically 3/4 of all men) complains about it.

Your doctors say it has health benefits and their doctors say it doesn't. This only tells you something about doctors.

 

[JustHereToTalk]

I understand why a Jew would circumcise his child, but why would a Christian?

 

[Owen GB5]

I'm not God. I can't answer why He chose a particular thing to be the sign, only that He did.

You can't blame God for silly people killing their babies by authorizing a radical circumcision procedure which has nothing to do with the much simpler Abrahamic circumcision that is a sign of the covenant.
The radical circumcision that is done in the U.S.A. and Australia and is meant to maim the child comes much later. Rabbi Maimonides and many others are completely clear about the religious benefits of this procedure (e.g. the limiting of sexual pleasure).
Of course the person who has had their prepuce cut off never knows what they are missing and many are in denial of their loss of sexual function and claiming 'health' benefits.

 

[Tina W]

I still say it's unnecessary these days.

 

[possibletarian]

As someone who does not believe I always wondered about it in the first place, by that I mean why was it ordered in the first place? Why would a god make people a certain way, then ask them to mutilate themselves, if it's for hygiene ?

Especially as it became not necessary for non Jewish Christians at all, and in fact those who insisted on it were called out by Paul "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision." Philipians 3:2 (KJV) strong wortds.

Anyway no excuse in my book today, for any strictly non medical reason.

 

[Owen GB5]

As someone who does not believe I always wondered about it in the first place, by that I mean why was it ordered in the first place? Why would a god make people a certain way, then ask them to mutilate themselves, if it's for hygiene ?

Especially as it became not necessary for non Jewish Christians at all, and in fact those who insisted on it were called out by Paul "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision." Philipians 3:2 (KJV) strong wortds.

Anyway no excuse in my book today, for any strictly non medical reason.

The idea that circumcision is done for reasons of hygiene is a modern opinion held by some in the U.S.A. Most of the rest of the non-Muslim world don't mutilate their genitals and do not have the hygiene problems that the circumcised in America are supposedly being saved from.

 

[Owen GB5]

I still say it's unnecessary these days.

I agree. But there are still people who believe that it is 'necessary' and believe there are valid reasons why it has become so. (Mostly since Mr Kellogg others believed they found new reasons to do it.)

 

[Sketcher]

And yet nurses and doctors still perform the procedure, and recommend it being done to their family members. Just shows how religious ideals can overweigh common sense like 'Don't cut your child's privates'

Why do you assume that doctors and nurses are recommending the procedure for religious reasons rather than medical ones?

 

[Nithavela]

As someone who does not believe I always wondered about it in the first place, by that I mean why was it ordered in the first place? Why would a god make people a certain way, then ask them to mutilate themselves, if it's for hygiene ?

Especially as it became not necessary for non Jewish Christians at all, and in fact those who insisted on it were called out by Paul "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision." Philipians 3:2 (KJV) strong wortds.

Anyway no excuse in my book today, for any strictly non medical reason.

I'd say it's for the same reason that children of certain jungle tribes do this:

And in other tribes, boys reaching adulthood are scarred.

Papua New Guinea initiation ritual scars boys to look like crocodiles | Daily Mail Online

It's a way of marking an individual as part of a group and ensuring that they view themselves as part of the tribe and any different person as an outsider. It is also painfull to ensure submission to the older men of authority.

It's nothing more than simple tribal superstition, transported into modern civilisation. At the most basic level of civilisation, we're still monkeys shouting at each other from trees.

 

[Tina W]

 

[Joshua_5]

If you don't like it, don't do it. But why demonise others for doing something that's been done for thousands of years without harm, and was at one time commanded by God in the bible? There are heaps of other debatable and more serious medical procedures that aren't in the bible (vaccination, removal of tonsils, removal of the appendix), and no one gets demonised for these. Why?

 

[Nithavela]

If you don't like it, don't do it. But why demonise others for doing something that's been done for thousands of years without harm, and was at one time commanded by God in the bible? There are heaps of other debatable and more serious medical procedures that aren't in the bible (vaccination, removal of tonsils, removal of the appendix), and no one gets demonised for these. Why?

Because circumcision of infants is not a victimless crime.

 

[Joshua_5]

Because circumcision of infants is not a victimless crime.

Their son - their choice. And if you're looking for victims, there are plenty who need to have it done later in life, due to problems which could have been prevented by having it done earlier. If it was such a crime and the loose skin so important, why would God command it as a covenant symbol, and not something else?

 

[Nithavela]

Their son - their choice.

What are your thoughts on female circumcision?

 

[Joshua_5]

What are your thoughts on female circumcision?

No such thing. Females are not born with foreskin, so how can they have it snipped off? The barbaric practice of cutting off the [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] is rightly termed female genital mutilation.

 

[Nithavela]

No such thing. Females are not born with foreskin, so how can they have it snipped off?

Demonstrably wrong.

Clitoral hood - Wikipedia

Not every kind of female circumcision involves cutting of the [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse], some only remove parts of the clitoral hood or even just ritually nick it.

So, what are your thoughts on that.

 

[Desk trauma]

If you don't like it, don't do it

You should be free to do whatever you like to your own penis. Others peoples, not so much.

 

[Dave-W]

I still say it's unnecessary these days.

Not for Jews. It is a mark of the Abrahamic covenant.