Getting back to the original topic of the thread, the Amish are very fascinating and, surprisingly, diverse people. They have groups all over the world, adn not all of them drive buggies and wear a particular (out-dated) style of clothing. Some have electricity in their homes and phones. There is one group that is SO traditionalist that they will only dress in black (I've seen them in north-east Ohio, just above Andover) and others who wear bright blues, greens and purples. Their clergy are called bishops, and how a particular church group within the Amish community lives is decided by how the bishop interprets the Bible. They are very creative and ingenious people. My uncle has some of his mechanical stuff machined in an Amish shop where they use cables, converors, pulleys,pedals, etc, to do that work without any electricity or fossil fuels used. They have some of the most beautiful and well-kept homes in the areas where they have built communities, are awesome gardeners, carpenters, masons, seamstresses, and cooks.

There are so many Native American nations and tribes that it is hard to even know where to start. However, from what I've read and studied, the ones on the east coast were primarily peaceful at the time of the first settlers. They tended, for the most part, to have a philosophy of "we will accept you and teach you how to live off the land for your survival as long as you don't get violent with us. If that happens, then we will respond in kind." As you get further west, yuo find the more war-like tribes. (I think that Gene Roddenberry borrowed the phrase "it's a good day to die" for the Klingons from the Sioux, who were so war-like that they fought against each other.)There are exceptions to both of these analises, though. For instance, the Iriquois and other Lake Erie area peoples were quite war-like, until they realized that the futility of that constant violence would eventually destroy all of them. Also, from what I can see, the Arikara of the upper midwest would fight mostly in the name of self defense. Otherwise, they were peaceful farmers and true hunter/gatherers.

All in all, I think if people could bring themselves to respect everyone else's views, even if they don't agree with them, then this would be a much more peaceful world in which to live no matter what group you belong to.

Well that looks good on paper.

But what do you do if your view is to live in harmony with nature and my view is to bulldoze down all the trees and put in a parking lot, shopping mall, and airport?

It can be pretty hard to respect the views of others when they conflict with your lifestyle and you're trying to live on the same patch of land.

It's sometimes hard to accept that the modern notion of progress(which, BTW, stems from the antiqueted notion of "manifest destiny") often causes unneccessary destruction of parts of Mother Nature's beautiful planet on which she allows us to live for now. However, to de-program the human race of the negative attitudes that have been shoved at us as humans for hundreds, if not a couple thousand, years wil take time. I just hope that we who want to protect and conserve the Earth can educate and influence enough people in enough time that we don't end up destroying the planet before or children and grand children have the chance to see and live on it. Both the Amish, and some traditional Native descendants anre among those working toward this goal.

Well, it seems to me that as long as people are under the belief that some supernatural intervening God has some Master Plan which includes his RETURN in the middle of a human war, it's going to be difficult to convince them not to be looking forward to that and endorsing religious wars.

I fear that a lot of people believe in a "battle of Amageddon" and that this battle will somehow invoke "The Christ" to return.

Many people simply believe that whatever God's plan is will unfold. Therefore they take no action to prevent this sort of thing. In fact they actually contribute to this vision via financial support of their oraganized religion (which often goes into 'evangelism' which is basically proseyltizing campagnes that fuel political unrest and drive this self-fullfilling prophesy).

Or they take active participation in publically denouncing all religions other than the one they feel is the 'word of God'. Again fanning the flames of these myths.

The sad part of it is that they think they are actually doing "God" a favor, when in truth they are actually doing humanity and their grandchildren a GREAT DISSERVICE!

If we must choose between an imaginary mythology and humanity we better make that choice pretty quick, because unfortunately the vast majority of the world's population support this mythological prophecy.

I'm not sure how the Muslims see this as I don't know whether their Quran contains anything like Revelations, in the Bible. But they sure seem to be gun-ho to bring this mythical prophecy to fruition as well.

How do we convince these people that this isn't what we should be focusing on?

Wow, that's a tough question. I guess that we do the best we can without making matters worse.