The science of violence seems to be en vogue at the moment; we already highlighted Steven Pinker's (silly) book at the end of last year, and now John Horgan has a book out on the subject titled "The End of War," which the Atlantic recently excerpted. Horgan's analysis is intriguing, as he looks at the history of both biological explanations and solutions to violence.

Ultimately he finds, though, that such explanations are insufficient, though he is equally uncompelled by traditional (Lockean) "bad apple" explanations of war, as well he should be. In fact, the truth probably is between the two options Horgan explores: violence is innate to man, as the biological explanations suggest, and violence is also the result of human nature, as the "bad apple" explanation suggests. The problem with the Lockean explanation, though, is that it's too limited - violence is innate to all men, and is a problem of universal human nature. We're all bad apples (Jeremiah 17:9), and so long as people exist, so will conflict.

If we wish to end war, the place to look is not ourselves, but outside ourselves.