I love the faith we have in mankind. And by mankind of course I mean the good guys in a work of science fiction. Must we add a darkside to everything? I don't think that is what Georgie had intended with the training them from a young age thing. There is really no reason to infer any of this based on anything from any of the prequels (holy crap! Did I just defend the PT?). As far as the fanatical religious order goes, if there was a religion that allowed people to shoot lightning from their figures and to be able to nearly fly, I think I would be interested in becoming a fanatic myself. If you had such damning evidence that a religion is without a doubt real, why not dedicate your child to that order. Especially if you were going to have them aborted anyway, or if the parents were poor and knew they couldn't give the child a very decent life. Keven J. Anderson (as cheesy of a writer as he often is) had a much more believeable setup with Luke's Jedi Academy. There they begin in their early teen years, and they get to go home and visit their parents or their parents come to visit them. Very much like a boarding school. Even in that case Luke had to search out force initiate people, because not every one could be a Jedi, and recruit them or talk their parents into sending them there. Which is much more reasonable when it does not mean that they are never going to see them again. The first time I saw episode I and they said Anakin was too old to begin the training I thought it was retarded. Especially since Obi-Wan said to Yoda "Was I much younger when you taught me?" in reference to Luke. So, it seems every famous jedi that become heroes in SW films actually begin training much older. If you are taught in your late teens/early twenties, like Ben or Luke, you come out fine. But if your training begins when you are around nine or so, you're doomed to the dark side... you see, that is why you cannot reconcile the OT with the PT. Just doesn't work. I wish ol George would go the extra mile and remake episodes IV, V and VI with all new actors, special effect, cheesy dialogue and all, and continue the story and just disregard the OT.