whats the difference between someone being circumised and a dog getting his tail cropped??
Originally it was just a religious ritual, primarily among Jews and Muslims. It spread to the Christian population about 100 years ago and the reasons are not well identified. It may be that it was thought to reduce the risk of infection, in an era when the germ theory of disease had just been formulated and was not thoroughly understood. In the Dark Ages the Jews were thought to be in league with the Devil because they were not as hard hit by epidemics like the Black Plague. The real reason was that they simply kept their houses and their bodies cleaner than the Gentiles, who rarely bathed and lived in what we would call squalor. In less superstitious modern times, perhaps people envied the Jews for their health and decided to emulate their practices in hopes of improving their own health.
Today it is recommended in the regions with the highest rate of HIV/AIDS. Although it is not a guaranteed preventive, statistically it appears to lower the risk so greatly that it is expected to reduce HIV from a rampant epidemic that orphans millions of children to a public health issue of more normal dimensions.
It's not clear what the down-side of circumcision is, aside from the pain, and modern surgeons use various anesthetic or other pain prevention techniques. I don't know if Jewish
mohels use any of those, or if pain is just part of their deal with God. It has been hypothesized that removal of the foreskin diminishes sensation during intercourse. It seems to me that the only person who could answer that question is a sexually active man who had it done as an adult--perhaps during conversion to Judaism, since that is one of the requirements--and I have yet to encounter any testimony from such a man. I have read that Muslim men generally undergo the procedure during adolescence, but if any of them are not virgins I doubt that they would admit it.
Is a circumcision considered a butchering?
Using the word "butchering" to describe surgery--ritual, cosmetic or medical; human or animal--is strictly vernacular since the word properly applies only to cutting up a dead animal for its meat. It's one of those inflammatory words that has more
connotation than
denotation. The only meaning it imparts is that the person using the word does not approve of whatever process he's using it to describe.
People who approve of tail docking or circumcision call it surgery. Those who don't, call it butchering. Using the word or not using it will have no effect on the debate, except perhaps to make it more chaotic and less productive by generating anger.
