When I grew up I wanted to be a scientist, and what's the deal with circumcision?
As a child I remember being fascinated with science, the fact that human beings had learned so much about our world excited me, and I wanted to contribute something of my own. So I learned a lot, and in high school I took advanced courses in science, although I began to grow more and more interested in history as well. On the morning of September 11, I remember being told a plane hit the building, and it was because of my understanding of physics, and my recent trip to the world trade center two months earlier, and I believe I even watched the documentary where they said it could withstand a plane hitting it, I did not for one second even consider that the buildings could come down. And I was such a close follower of the news that I remember watching building 7 collapse also. Now at the time these events struck me as odd, but I went on for years not thinking about it again until confronted with the evidence much later. I am so thankful that I have a good understanding of physics. Otherwise I'd be screwed and may still be duped into the lie.
What is wrong with science today? Once I learned the basics, I tried to move on to the more experimental stuff, quantum theory and a lot of these other things, I tried to understand, but I didn't realize that they don't understand, its all mathematics now, and even worse, statistics and computer models. First global warming check out what the UN is promoting now:
From the World Health Organization
Funded by the US National Institutes of Health, the trials were terminated early on 12 December 2006 on the recommendation of their Data and Safety Monitoring Board. The findings of the two trials support the results of the South Africa Orange Farm Intervention Trial, funded by the French National Agency for Research on AIDS (ANRS), which were published in late 2005. Together the three studies, which enrolled more than 10 000 participants, provide compelling evidence of a 50 to 60% reduction in heterosexual HIV transmission to men.
Maybe this is nothing to be concerned with, but I find the results a little surprising. If this is true shouldn't the question be HOW does circumcision prevent HIV? Perhaps it is in the study, but it raises other questions, do we find a similar correlation in other populations? Were their sexual behaviors changed at all?
When will scientists learn that correlation does not always mean causation? When need to be told how it works.
When I had my son, I decided not to get him a circumcision, it was painful, expensive and unneccesary. If he wants it done as an adult, then he can make that choice, but I didn't want to make it up for him. The medical establishment now admits that there is no real medical reason to do it. Of course, Nicole Richie says that she won't date a man unless he is circumcised, all the more reason for me to leave it be. I wonder what are the effects of circumcision? Hard to say since I am, and cannot relate to those who are not. One story I read online of an adult who had it done said that he now ejaculates prematurely, and that yes it has destroyed a formerly sensitive part of his penis, but he doesn't care because now he'll fit in more at the gym in the shower. When it comes to genital or body mutilation leave me out. Doctors are so careless. I wasn't going to share this, but I feel it is important, my dad tells me that when I was a baby I could pee across the room, so he told the doctor, and the doctor said not a problem and cut the hole in my penis right there, thanks doc! If anyone knows about the history of circumcision in america, or the history of the health care system in america that lead to this kind of an attitude in doctors please let me know.
Personally, I don't trust any studies put out by the UN, or any other political bodies, in fact I rarely trust any study, I am smart enough to look at the study myself and draw my own conclusions because I am a scientist, well I think more critically than most scientists do.
neither in the science nor the religion of circumcision.
[incidentally - Muslims like Jews circumcise their baby boys and I am muslim, though not a boy.]
My best guess for why circumcision is required by God is that it's easier to stay clean when you're circumcised.
Now, in an age where theoretically there could be an ample supply of clean running water to allow every man on earth to maintain impeccable hygiene, there should theoretically be no reason to circumcise young boys.
However, if you look at man's situation when and where the word of God was revealed to Muhammad, Jesus, Moses, and Abraham before them, you'll notice that there wasn't a whole lot of running water in the desert.
So, it makes sense to minimize the need for it by circumcizing young boys.
But, that's just my educated guess.
I don't think it's painful for boys when they're so young.
But, of course, there are risks associated with every surgical procedure - no matter how minor or routine.
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"Money" has no value - people do.
Well I know that muslims practice this as well, and I think that the cleaniness is a good hypothesis, although it is easier with running water to keep it clean. But it is definitely painful, I was told that you don't want to be in the room when they clamp down your child and hear him screaming and bleeding. The truth is that they are too young to remember the pain. As for God, I don't think that God speaks to people or commands people, but thats a matter of faith, of belief.
I have three sons, the eldest was circumcised at the age of almost three and the younger two were done when they were around seven months. The first two were done under general anaesthetic in public hospitals. The youngest was done under local anaesthetic at a local clinic.
They all recovered quickly. The eldest was old enough to know something had been done to him, he had asked, "how am I going to go to the toilet?"
Anyway, with the youngest one at the clinic, it was extremely upsetting for me. I had to pass him to a nurse and leave the room. I insisted that I would be okay, that I wasn't afraid of blood and stuff. The doctor said that I "had" to leave the room. My son became uncomfortable and noticed that something wasn't right the moment I passed him to the nurse. Needless to say he cried throughout the procedure, and everyone in the waiting room including me listened to him crying for about half an hour, if not more.
I think if I had remained and comforted him, he wouldn't have cried so much and the doctor would have been able to do his job more easily.
This doctor has moved onto plastic surgery.
I agree with males being circumcised for religious and hygienic reasons. Not everyone in the world has running water. With the drought in Australia our reservoirs are under 40% capacity, how long are we going to have running water?
Children are more resilient than adults. Children get over chicken pox and other illnesses quicker and easier than adults. They also recover quicker from minor surgery like circumcision.
P.S. I am a scientist too.;)
to circumcise boys when they are newborns - a week or so after they're born.
It's not as easy to gauge how much foreskin to remove. But, an experienced obstetrician should have a good idea how much to remove.
I've seen a couple of circumcisions in my time.
Of course, it's not pleasant for the baby or the parents. But, babies usually get over it quickly.
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"Money" has no value - people do.
why would god give us a foreskin in the first place?
why would there be so many nerve endings in it?
it's dangerous and unnecessary in my book.
in college wasn't circumcised and claimed his was a "silly millimeter longer" because of it. I always thought it funny.
Knowing now what I had no say-in at the time, I Absolutely would not have gone along with the decision. First, I believe it is strictly a Jewish tradition (Muslim too) that was forced upon the stupid Christian goyim by an AMA governed by Talmudist. Second, if the stories are true regarding the identification of Jews during the European purges (stripping the trousers down to expose the male genitalia) then I firmly believe the paranoid Jews were bound to glorify their persecution with the well worn battle tune of "Never Again"!
In other words, lets mutilate all the baby Goy males so they can't identify us so easily the next time. They'll believe anything we Doctors say, yuck yuck! As a result, I am
circumcised. Look Ma, no Smegma!
to be circumcised and should be done earlier while boys don't remember much of it anyway. Boys would cry if you give them to stranger even if they don't operate anything on them, its normal human response to unknown and potentially threatening situation. Some boys of young age cry even if the stranger say hello to them. However they should use anesthetic while performing circumcision to save parents and child from emotional trauma which is forgotten quite quickly as is giving birth to a child. Labor is quite dramatic event and mother is often very hostile to father due to her pain but as soon as baby is born she loves him even more. Also its much easier to contract infections with foreskin even in our age because most of males do not wash penis after urination (which is requirement in Islamic hygiene) and furthermore they can infect wife if they don't use condoms. I don't see it as problem if you are circumcised because benefits are much greater than any (if there are any) losses.
Circumcision cuts HIV/AIDS risk by 60%
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/25/1986695.htm
Posted Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:41am AEST
International trials reveal that male circumcision reduces the spread of HIV/AIDS by 60 per cent.
Circumcision has been practiced for thousands of years. About 30 per cent of men worldwide have had the procedure.
Experts at the International AIDS Society Conference, being held in Sydney, say circumcision is one of the main strategies in preventing HIV infection in African countries.
The American Professor, Robert Bailey, says circumcision stops the spread of the virus by 60 per cent, as revealed in several trials.
"The last two [trials] were actually stopped early because they showed such a high level of efficacy, that it wouldn't be ethical to continue the trial and withhold circumcision from the control group," he said.
Professor Bailey says the challenge is to change cultural and government attitudes, so that the practice can be universally adopted.
"Let there be Light!"
We really have to leave the genitals of children of any sex alone. This is a serious and irreversible matter in the lives of real humans and needs firm resolve. Parents have every right to raise their children according to their own belief system, but have no right to physically and surgically modify their children's body based on their traditions or religions with absolutely no medical necessity.
"A 2005 report by UNICEF suggested that 97% of Egyptian women between the ages of 15 and 49 who have never been married have undergone some form of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) or circumcision."
Although,
"FGM is a social custom, not a religious practice in Egypt as it is in other countries of Northern Africa.... In those countries where the mutilation is common, it is practiced by Muslims, Christians, and followers of other religious groups."
www.religioustolerance.org/fem_cirm3.htm
There is zilch of any form of evidence in the non male-circumcising societies from hot arid Africa and ME to hot ,humid, and hazy south east Asia to cold dry steppes of Russian to all season Caucasus and Europe that infectious diseases attributable to noncircumcision compared to the areas that started practicing circumcision and those diseases disappeared.
All modern sounding rationale described here and there are as reliable as reasons for global warming. They sound plausible but cannot be proven.
These nurses speak about the pain:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOjYrxzCMmI#F6gQHc54mJc
"In 1985, Nurse Marilyn Milos was fired for advising parents against circumcision. She founded NOCIRC (the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers) and has been working for genital integrity ever since."
www.circumstitions.com/nurses.html
The problem with science today is that it is extremely manipulatable when the audiences are nonscientists. For those who are interested to find out how the studies mentioned in the post had been "custom ordered" please read the following statement:
"Doctors Opposing Circumcision:
HIV Statement"
www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/info/HIVStatement.html
Although the statement is strictly professional and neutral, you will find that the originating idea and study formulators come from Judaic and israeli doctors who have been advocating circumcision for more a decade. Many parameters in the studies are inexplicably set favorable to the final results.
no europeans or usaians, outside of the religious communities for whom it is traditional, showed the faintest interest in spreading the use of male circumcision as a 'hygienic measure' until post-ww2, when the world health organisation and similar ideologically motivated bodies started preaching it.
I believe the reason may be quite simply that jews felt generalising male circumcision would make them less easily singled out.
When ol' Claymore was in Marine Corps boot camp at Paris Island, the recruits were subjected to weekly hygiene inspections , almost always by some lowly Second Leutenant, where they were required to stand online and reveal their genetalia to make sure no one showed any signs of VD or sores.
I remember the command they would give:
Helmetheads - Stand Fast!
Anteaters - Pull'em back!
its a reference to the english civil war, and quite appropriate, in that the roundheads (the puritans) were indeed the judaisers.
i thought this was funny. someone wrote this here.
--
dear foreskin,
Thanks for working with me when I jerk off, you're like a tube sock connected to my penis. I am always ready to wank one out without fear of chafing because you're always with me.
Also, thank you for protecting sensitive penis head and never letting it rub against any zippers or any other potentially disastrous surfaces.
it's you and me to the end
-Ben