It’s an American Christian thing, apparently it came from the late 1800s repressive trend that also led to prohibition and it was actually intended to reduce sexual enjoyment! it DOES actually help reduce STDs because viruses don’t get trapped under the fore skin. There was a 1990s study on AIDS in rural Africa where the transmission rate was so much lower that they halted the study and advised all the participants to get circumcised! But unless you’re in rural Africa with no running water, no condoms and no sex education then the health benefit is negligible. There’s better ways to prevent viruses. Also, one famous “transgender” case waS from a botched circumcision that destroyed the penis so they decided to cut everything else off and tell the kid he was a girl. He never felt like a girl and ultimately killed himself. You’d think that the possibility of accidentally destroying your kids genitals would be reason enough!
Biblical morality as in the “Decalogue” was installed for Jews dealing with Jews. It kept the home team from infighting. As to how they would and should deal with the rest of humanity, that was a different story. 😊
And on the basis of atheism, what makes circumcision "wrong"? Or slavery? Or even genocide? Isn't that just your personal opinion? What makes your opinion right and Moses' wrong?
Once again morality goes far beyond personal opinion as it involves many other factors that affect what makes an action morally right or wrong. social accountability, social survival, harm versus benefit, etc. etc. etc. That you continue to ask this question tells me that you really haven't thought about morality that much. Your answer is 'because dad says so' and is the same attitude as a child would say it in moral understanding. But you oversimplify morality like a child and you really need to read secular moral philosophers because your question is so basically wrong because you can't conceive of morality as a human thing and not a divine one.
@@therabydatheist But if you take the pragmatic approach to morality -- it's based on social survival, harm vs. benefit, etc. -- then you can just as easily defend slavery as free market capitalism, nuclear weapons, and even the Nazi Holocaust. If we exist in nature as animals that have evolved from lower forms of life, then it's all a matter of natural selection -- the survival of the fittest, nature red in tooth and claw, as Tennyson put it. We should we look out for the well-being of others if we can advance our own interests by taking advantage of others? To the victor go the spoils!
Harming others is not the way to go about a productive life. Good luck being successful when everyone wants you dead. lol. If everyone hates you, nobody’s going to hire you for anything. Or do you favors. Or procreate with you. It’s really not that difficult of a concept to grasp.
If everyone hates you, nobody will hire you, do you favors or procreate with you. It’s really not difficult to grasp. But if you need a god to keep you from enslaving people or mutilating infant genitalia, then please, never stop believing.
I'm still angry at my parents for my circumcision. We weren't even Jewish. We were Baptists.
It’s an American Christian thing, apparently it came from the late 1800s repressive trend that also led to prohibition and it was actually intended to reduce sexual enjoyment!
it DOES actually help reduce STDs because viruses don’t get trapped under the fore skin. There was a 1990s study on AIDS in rural Africa where the transmission rate was so much lower that they halted the study and advised all the participants to get circumcised! But unless you’re in rural Africa with no running water, no condoms and no sex education then the health benefit is negligible. There’s better ways to prevent viruses.
Also, one famous “transgender” case waS from a botched circumcision that destroyed the penis so they decided to cut everything else off and tell the kid he was a girl. He never felt like a girl and ultimately killed himself. You’d think that the possibility of accidentally destroying your kids genitals would be reason enough!
Biblical morality as in the “Decalogue” was installed for Jews dealing with Jews. It kept the home team from infighting. As to how they would and should deal with the rest of humanity, that was a different story. 😊
And on the basis of atheism, what makes circumcision "wrong"? Or slavery? Or even genocide? Isn't that just your personal opinion? What makes your opinion right and Moses' wrong?
Once again morality goes far beyond personal opinion as it involves many other factors that affect what makes an action morally right or wrong. social accountability, social survival, harm versus benefit, etc. etc. etc. That you continue to ask this question tells me that you really haven't thought about morality that much. Your answer is 'because dad says so' and is the same attitude as a child would say it in moral understanding. But you oversimplify morality like a child and you really need to read secular moral philosophers because your question is so basically wrong because you can't conceive of morality as a human thing and not a divine one.
@@therabydatheist But if you take the pragmatic approach to morality -- it's based on social survival, harm vs. benefit, etc. -- then you can just as easily defend slavery as free market capitalism, nuclear weapons, and even the Nazi Holocaust. If we exist in nature as animals that have evolved from lower forms of life, then it's all a matter of natural selection -- the survival of the fittest, nature red in tooth and claw, as Tennyson put it. We should we look out for the well-being of others if we can advance our own interests by taking advantage of others? To the victor go the spoils!
Harming others is not the way to go about a productive life. Good luck being successful when everyone wants you dead. lol. If everyone hates you, nobody’s going to hire you for anything. Or do you favors. Or procreate with you. It’s really not that difficult of a concept to grasp.
If everyone hates you, nobody will hire you, do you favors or procreate with you. It’s really not difficult to grasp. But if you need a god to keep you from enslaving people or mutilating infant genitalia, then please, never stop believing.
When you need a god to be good person, you are not a good person.