Ancient Biblical ritual saves MILLIONS of lives

I think you have this completely backwards, if you think about it for a minute.Circumcision today, when performed in a modern medical facility, is much safer than it has been for people throughout history. The risk of infection in the days before proper antibiotics would of course have been much higher - significantly higher than the risk of HIV, which did not yet exist. This is easily illustrated by a study conducted in Kenya, Lesotho and Tanzania. While studies have suggested that circumcision reduces HIV rates in sexually active heterosexual men, this one looked at children and virgins, and found that they were more likely to have HIV if circumcised than if not, because of the risk of disease transmission as part of the operation, particularly in places where it's done in unhygienic conditions.

I know that's what you meant, I was just telling you that you're wrong. I'm not sure from where you're getting your figures for the number of deaths related to infection from surgery and the number of deaths from venereal disease that would have been prevented by circumcision in the ancient world. For obvious reasons, there aren't any, so this can be nothing but speculation.I'd disagree that washing every day is a modern cleaning practice. Don't look to the appalling hygiene standards that existed in pre-modern Europe and assume this was the standard for the ancient world. Most pre-modern cultures had stricter hygiene standards than this, including those which practiced circumcision. Egyptian culture, in particular, was very fastidious about cleanliness, and Arabic culture also has traditions of ritual washing.Basic cleanliness was easier in ancient times than sterile operations, so I still doubt circumcision had significant health benefits in the ancient world, even if it may today.

That's why very few people live in deserts. Ancient Egypt wasn't a desert civilisation. The desert was mostly empty of people, just like today. Ancient Egypt was the river Nile and the coast - places with abundant water amenable to growth of human civillisation.