On Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:21:10 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:

> The whole point of religion is to control people "now", in order to save
> them "later", in some vague sense.

Well, if I were a cynic, I'd say that the point of religion is to get 
people to believe in an afterlife and then use that belief in an 
afterlife to control them now (by implanting fears about how they will 
spend eternity if they don't do the things the religious leadership wants 
them to do).  Making people think they will spend an eternity in hellfire 
and pain will motivate people to do a lot of things.

Jim

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