Invoking religion in what should be secular discussions regarding public policy can definitely be perceived as pushing religion down people's throats. Imagine

Invoking religion in what should be secular discussions regarding public policy can definitely be perceived as pushing religion down people's throats. Imagine the opposite -- if every time a group of people were seen chatting about religion, someone walked up and quoted some famous atheistic reference? However, I don't see an iterated discussion of this as a useful tangent for the thread to take, so let's discuss instead how religious philosophies of all kinds could or should have informed the believers of those religions in the issue of prisoner treatment. What leads to the dichotomy between religious messages of peace, and the warlike behavior of some adherents to those religions?