May 12 2009
The Devilish Penis and Curbing Desire
You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. (Genesis 17:10-12)
“Chimps, but not macaques, appear to be able to understand the different perspectives of their conspecifics, as when a subordinate male chimp aroused by the presence of a female covers his erection when a dominant male approaches.”
- Scott Atran (43)
When is a penis bad? When is it good?
In his provocative book, Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions, Walter Burkert explored the origins of sexual practices and commandments in religious belief. Although this quote is about castration, Burkert later extends his exploration to the Biblical ritual of circumcision.
“What is especially interesting is the psychological explanation it offers for the ritual of castration. It is the fear of the more potent sexual rival, the king with his power to kill, that drives the inferior partner to renounce his sex.” (44)
While a king would naturally like to rest easier by knowing inferiors have no way of impregnating his women behind his back, what could be the possible benefit of circumcision be to a deity?
There are a few. First, from a purely pragmatic yet fully speculative perspective, one goal might be to slightly deaden the sensitivity of the male sex organ. Why? Longer copulations. Which might create better bonds of those pairings the alpha accepts and perhaps even encourages. Might. Also, “quickies” become less of a danger. Thus it is harder to be sneaky about one’s sexual pairings. Which favors the alpha.
A second possibility is the issue of potency and power. Because sexuality seems to be intimately coupled with this, to control sexuality is to control general potency. If men demonstrate that they recognize they are “lesser” they are more likely to stay on the good side of the greater power. Consider this verse from Exodus that probably kept Freud up at nights:
At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met [Moses] and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched [Moses'] feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the LORD let him alone. (Exodus 4:24-26)
“Thou must be circumcised” is quite a creative commandment. It says, To follow me and have a relationship with me (formalized via our covenant) you must take a knife to your reproductive organ and trim a bit off.
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ. (Colossians 2:10-12)
A lion’s share of the sinful nature of individuals consists of those behaviors that disrupt communities: unbridled sexual urges and the wielding of un-governed power for personal gain. Sin, the Bible god’s ghost-writers knew, is best nipped in the bud. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)
Curb those sexual desires. And show me you are committed to being well-behaved. Sexually. And in any way related to sex. Which is a damn lot of ways.
If religions addresses deep, human social needs, what deeper need is there than those of a sexual nature?
—
(43) Atran, S., In God’s We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002, p. 30
(44) Burkert, W., Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996, 49
