I'm an American, and I think this thread was a huge downer.
- Religion isn't really anywhere near as big of a deal in everyday life as most people in this thread seem to think, at least in my experience. I think most people go to church for the social and community aspects of it first, and it's not really clear how many of them literally believe the religious stuff. Certainly far from all. Besides that, religion is becoming less present in public life all the time, and it already isn't all that present.
- It's depressing how it seems to be in human nature to attack things we don't understand. I think we all, everyone, worldwide (including people on both sides of this argument) would do well to try to counter that tendency. Learn more first before you attack.
I'd have a hard time generalizing and saying something about all Americans, but one cool thing about us is we're always good-humored and ready to try new ideas (with a healthy dose of skepticism). If you narrow it down to my particular area, which is an east-coast suburb, the thing I like most about people here is how open and friendly we are to people different from us, but the thing I like least is we don't tend to know our neighbors (literally, like: next door, across the street, etc.) well at all.