HappySqurriel said:
sapphi_snake said:
HappySqurriel said:
Circumcision to prevent masturbation and circumcision as a punishment for masturbation are two very different things, your argument implied that it was a punsihment for masturbation, and (across cultures) the general explaination of reason for circumcision was hygene and reproductive health; and, while you can find "experts" who claim that it was for just about any reason, the hygene explaination makes the most sense.
Beyond that, I don't see how classifying mastubation as sinful is any more abusive than any other corrective belief we inflict upon children; including actions I would expect you to support, like the tolerance police ...
With that said, I still haven't seen a single piece of evidence that suggests religion had anything to do with this case in particular; and the argument connecting this act to christianity could be used to connect homosexuality to paedophilia ...
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I don't get you. I provided material that shows circumcision was used both as prevention and punishment for masturbation (e.g. kid would get caught jacking off, kid would be circumcised so he'd stop). You can deny all you want, but the hygene explanation isn't it, especially in christian Europe and North America.
And if you don't see why saying that masturbation is a sin has a traumatic effect on an individual, then I assume you must be some fundementalist or something, case in which I won't even bother.
And if you wanna connect homosexuality to paedophilia, you'd also have to connect heterosexuality to paedophilia, and you'd get nowehere. 
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Your connection between this incident and christianity is "Some people at some point in time may have perverted the Christian beliefs to justify abuse of children because of Christianity, therefore child-abuse related to sexuality is caused by Christianity" which isn't that different from saying "Some men in the past have had homosexual relationships with boys, therefore homosexuality is the cause of child sexual abuse" ...
As for me being a "fundamentalist" ... I was raised in a non-religious household and became an atheist when I was a teenager, as an adult it became clear that atheism was an illogical belief system (the devout belief in the non-existence of god) and most atheists hold a deep irrational intolerance of people who hold religious values (Christianity and Judaism in particular, and are conveniently cultural relativists when it comes to Islam) and I came to define myself as being agnostic.
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I don't get why people think that atheism has to involve a 'devout' belief in the non-existence of a god. Most atheists that I know (including me) think of God in the same way people think of unicorns - not impossible but pretty improbable given the lack of evidence for their existence. I don't know any atheists really who think that it is possible to prove the non-existence of God or that it is completely impossible that a God exists. Also it's quite possible to be both agnostic and atheist =P.
