[KillerGremlin]

Originally Posted by gekko

Actually sounds like your information is completely garbage. The history is fairly scattered, and you managed to pick out only one piece, which is far from proven knowledge.

Anyways, all I have to say is ouch.

Nice...you edited your post while I was finding some sources . I wouldn't say my info is garbage, here are some sources. I will agree that historians and anthropoligists have different theories on the origins of circumcision, but there is no denying that some people use it on anti-sex grounds.

http://www.cirp.org/library/history/

One theory postulates that circumcision began as a way of "purifying" individuals and society by reducing sexuality and sexual pleasure. Human sexuality was seen as dirty or impure in some societies; hence cutting off the pleasure-producing parts was the obvious way to "purify" someone.

It is now known that the male foreskin, or prepuce, is the principal location of erogenous sensation in the human male (see Anatomy.) Removal of the prepuce substantially reduces erogenous sensation. Therefore (in the appropriate cultural context), circumcision is revealed as a sacrifice of "sinful" human enjoyment (in this earthly life), for the sake of holiness in the afterlife.

and here were the liberals back in the day:

In contrast to the Jews, the Greeks and the Romans placed a high value on the prepuce. The Romans passed several laws to protect the prepuce by prohibiting circumcision.

http://www.cirp.org/library/history/dunsmuir1/

In some African tribes, circumcision is performed at birth. In Judaic societies, the ritual is performed on the eighth day after birth, but for Moslems and many of the tribal cultures it is performed in early adult life as a `rite of passage', e.g. puberty or marriage. Why the practice evolved is not clear and many theories have been proposed. Nineteenth century historians suggested that the ritual is an ancient form of social control. They conceive that the slitting of a man's penis to cause bleeding and pain is to remind him of the power of the Church, i.e. `We have control over your distinction to be a man, your pleasure and your right to reproduce'.

this one is even better:

Others believe that circumcision arose as a mark of defilement or slavery [1,9] (fig. 1). In ancient Egypt captured warriors were often mutilated before being condemned to the slavery.

http://www.d.umn.edu/~mcco0322/history.htm

Circumcision for the Egyptians was a method of purification; the body’s openings were considered portals through which impure and malignant spirits might penetrate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...e_circumcision

It has been variously proposed that male circumcision began as a religious sacrifice, as a rite of passage marking a boy's entrance into adulthood, as a form of sympathetic magic to ensure virility, as a means of suppressing (or enhancing) sexual pleasure, as an aid to hygiene where regular bathing was impractical, as a means of marking those of lower (or higher) social status, as a means of differentiating a circumcising group from their non-circumcising neighbors, as a means of discouraging masturbation or other socially proscribed sexual behaviors, to remove "excess" pleasure, to increase a man's attractiveness to women, as a symbolic castration, as a demonstration of one's ability to endure pain, or as a male counterpart to menstruation or the breaking of the hymen or to copy the rare natural occurance of a missing foreskin of an important leader. It has been suggested that the custom of circumcision gave advantages to tribes that practiced it and thus led to its spread regardless of whether the people understood this. [1] It is possible that circumcision arose independently in different cultures for different reasons. Biblical circumcision was an expression that a man had chosen to live his life for God and could control his own body. In the passing of time it was become isolated from this entirely, rather like infant christening.

Anyway, I agree with the latter part of your post but I wouldn't say my original statement was garbage.