Name a living religion that practiced circumcision before the Jews.Same procedure, different reason. A cultural tradition is not the same thing as a religious rite.
Exactly, that's what I've been saying all along.
So if me and Shlomo both get cut, and his is 'religious' and mine is not, guess what's left.
Besides which --- as I keep pointing out over and over --- circumcision (of either type) is WAY older than any religion. It was already there when each one of those religions bubbled up.
And the result is not the issue, rather the cause. The issue is motivation.
Once AGAIN it wasn't practiced by "religions" as it is not a religious practice.
Religions don't practice it --- cultures do.
Don't ask me to counter one causation fallacy --- with another causation fallacy. Just drop the fallacies.
Why are you so sure that a practice cannot be both cultural and religious?
Are you actually trying to say that Jews, at least of the conservative, orthodox variety, don't consider circumcision a religious mandate?
Here's The Jerusalem Council saying that circumcision is part of keeping the Covenant: Do I need to be circumcised? | The Jerusalem Council
According to the Jewish Virtual Library Project, "The rite of circumcision (brit milah) is one of the most ancient practices of Judaism. The commandment to circumcise male children was given to Abraham in the Torah (Genesis 17:714 and repeated in Leviticus 12:3)." Circumcision- Brit Milah
Reform Judaism says that "B’rit milah, (literally, “covenant of circumcision”), also called a bris, refers to a religious ritual through which male babies are formally welcomed into the Jewish people." B'rit Milah: The Circumcision Ritual
There are also supposedly some Christian sects that perform circumcision for religious reasons: the Ethiopian Orthodox Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Eritrean Orthodox Church Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church - Wikipedia
Circumcision can clearly be a religious and a cultural thing.
Once again ---- FGM has a long history in Ethiopia, and once again it long predates Christianism. So this is yet again another case of a new religion starting up and acceding to a cultural practice that already exists and is already widespread. That new religion knows it's not going to wrest an entrenched cultural practice out of practice, so it dresses it up in an 'official sanction'. It co-opts it. But the practice itself comes from longstanding established social practices --- not from religion.
If the discussion were about where circumcision originated, that would be important. However, you made the statement that circumcision "is not a religious practice." That is manifestly untrue. Whether the religions in question took the practice from cultural practices is irrelevant; circumcision IS a religious practice in some religions. There is no reason it cannot be a cultural practice and a religious practice.