No. Many wars are fought for baser motives. The desire for economic or political domination has caused many wars, as has the conviction that one "race" is somehow better than all the others.

Nor has the attempt to rid the world of religion contributed to peace. Take three examples of recent attempts - Hitler's Germany, Stalin's USSR and Pol Pot's Cambodia. In each case, the attempt was made to extirpate religion. In each case, millions were massacred on a scale unheard of before in human history. Let us be clear - from the evidence of history, religion has not been the cause of all wars, neither has the banishment of religion contributed to world peace.

Even the so-called "religious" wars have often been fought for motives of greed or power under the guise of religious conviction.

We need to remember too, that if a war is begun by an unjust aggressor, it may be legitimate for the aggrieved parties to defend themselves. Most of the men who fought in the second world war believed that it was right to defend our freedom from Nazi domination. We may be thankful for the sacrifice that they made without in any way "glorifying war".

In Catholic thought, the right of defence is carefully circumscribed by the theory of the "just war". This places limits on the means that may be employed in war. A well-known modern version of this thinking is found in the Geneva Convention.

Catholics and other Christians pray regularly and work for peace. They try to live a peaceful life personally as a small contribution to peace in the world. If you are genuinely concerned about the damage caused by war, this is a good way to do something positive - to light a candle rather than curse the darkness.