After reading Matthew Harris’ letter “Religious ideals may destroy civil societies”, I was alarmed at the potential danger of Matthew’s confusion regarding the source of religiously motivated wars. Matthew states that religion in all its forms “is the worst thing to happen to mankind” because some religions have been used in the past to justify agression.It seems that Matthew is guilty of the same fault that he ascribes to religious people – simple-mindedness. One cannot lay the blame for religious wars at the feet of all religions, because all religions do not advocate religious wars. In fact, while some religions contain tenets of coercion and domination, other religions have had to be distorted or altered to justify war.Belief in God and a committment to religious principles is not a danger to society. On the contrary, a civilized society decays and crumbles when it has no moral and ideological moorings. The danger arises when ignorant fear and self-protection motivates people to discriminate against religion and all religious people.Irreligion is not the right response to aggressive religions. Such irreligion is guilty of the same aggression.