Against religious circumcision

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The products of someone who is considered omniscient/almighty to improve/repair/adjust/tinker is indeed strange from the perspective of the person who deems his maker almighty.

My experience is that most of these people are not susceptible to these reasonable arguments.

I don't consider this thread a religious thread either, but a human thread. Humane in the sense that you must have respect for the physical integrity of a person, especially at times when that person is still defenseless.

It’s logically possible that a product could have been created with the intention of being cut away if one was asked to do it or if a person hoped to accomplish some purpose in doing so. One could argue that, say, it is cruel to put a child through surgery to remove cancer or take chemo treatments when the child is either incapable of giving consent or the child would refuse if asked. Parents can force their children to take immunizations as a requirement for enrolling in schools, parents can force their kids to GO to school as per compulsory attendance laws. When God institutes something like, say, circumcision, it is not up to the faithful whether to comply. That decision has already been made on their part. If you’re going to intrude on the right of the parent to make religious and health choices for children, why stop at circumcision? Get rid of vaccines. Get rid of dental care and orthodontics. And ban all abortions while you’re at it: You can’t take away the life of the child before you can ask that child whether he or she wants to be born. Take away compulsory attendance, or at least give the child the right to opt out if public education proves to be unlivable. The idea of “respecting the physical integrity…” isn’t reasonable when a child is struggling with, say, gallbladder problems, appendicitis, enlarged and chronically inflamed tonsils, kidney disease, heart murmurs, nasal polyps, ingrown toenails, etc., etc. A tiny piece of skin he’s never going to know is missing is an extremely minor issue compared to removing diseased organs. If it is reasonable to expect a child to endure a kidney or liver transplant, which violates their “physical integrity,” then circumcision is plenty reasonable.

Pierced ears for girls is another one of those things. I’ve known parents who had baby girls’ ears pierced to save them the trouble later on and reduce the risk of infection. We didn’t. But now we’ve committed to our oldest daughter getting hers done on her birthday because she wants to wear ear rings. It would seem having it done as a baby might have been the better choice.