>>13955223Atheists generally have trouble with higher-order thinking when it comes to matters of the psyche.
>>13955211The purpose of circumcision is detailed in Genesis 17. It is an external sign, a reminder to both the bearer and his people, of their Covenant with God. One need not partake in a ritual to appreciate the role it plays in shaping both the individual and the collective psyche.
To understand this better, let us consider a different example: The sacred Okipa ceremony, which was practiced by the Mandan people. For them, this torturous test marks the transition from boyhood to manhood. It is a ritual that kills the boy and births the man.
As a so-called "modern man"—i.e. soft and pudgy—you would probably decry it out of hand, calling it "silly, barbarous superstition" or some other reddit bromide along those lines. But a person who is familiar with Jungian matters and deep psychology would understand its psychic role and significance. To quote:
>Many traditional initiation rites may seem barbaric and cruel from a Western point of view, but in light of the archetype of the monomyth, it is easy to see why they are practised. Here are some examples of some particularly painful initiation rites. These, of course, are quite extreme examples. However, the requirement to endure some physical pain or to test one’s courage are very common features of initiation rites in traditional societies. The modern counterpart of this would be the ‘hazing rituals’ involved in initiation into a fraternity – although such rituals are now banned on many college campuses.Indeed, the Okipa ceremony has many counterparts in other cultures. One example is the skin-cutting ritual practiced by the Kaningara people of Papua New Guinea. In such cultures, initiation into manhood isn't treated as whimsically as it is in contemporary Western culture. Their very existence suggests they play an important evolutionary, anthropological, and higher-order psychic role.
