&gt;  I was just surprised to see someone I esteem so highly as jacquesm expousing what is, to my mind, such an ill-informed opinion<p>Embrace the occasion to reconsider whether it&#x27;s actually ill-informed, then. :)<p>To clarify what I was saying before, I don&#x27;t mean to say that &quot;God&quot; hasn&#x27;t been the main driver for wars and terror before. My point is that it&#x27;s usually just an <i>excuse</i>, so that more may join the cause.<p>If you want to wage war on Madeupistan and 95% of your country is hardcore vegetarian, it&#x27;s easier to get followers if you tell your people you&#x27;re spreading vegetarianism than if you tell them you want their unobtainium mines.<p>&gt; We&#x27;re hardly going to be able to tease this one out over a Hacker News thread.<p>Wanna try twitter? #140characters