Anarchy -

Excellent summary.

Two things I'd add:

1) When speaking of the difference in the effects of religious belief in the US and the UK, in general you are right, but using the Amish as a real-life example probably doesn't work. There are very few of them and they are very extreme. Admirable in many ways, especially their ability to live-what-they-believe, but they are considered sort of a "cult" even here. Almost nobody believes what they believe.

2) I don't think we love our old people any less, or have any less respect for human life than you do. I think the difference in behavior may be more in whether we believe what we are being told by our overseers, and what we think their true motivations might be. If some of what they are telling us is not true, then the game changes a bit. I can SEE that we are not turning into newts at the rate that they say we are, and so I use my own eyes and my own friends to guide my steps, not their propaganda.

I'm taking Gandhi's approach - if your uncontrollable masters (you guys can't vote them out either, it appears) tell you to do stuff that is wrong, immoral, and based on a lie, then you just Don't Do It. There's enough of us now that they can't make us do it, and eventually things will change.

Be all that as it may, thanks for the well-thought-out and accurate response.

Lannis