Is this really surprising? One of the main purposes religion served "back in the day" was to keep the unwashed masses under control. They were almost completely uneducated / illiterate but they could understand the concept of a big bad place called "hell" (or whatever underworld their religion believed in) and a fear of "god" sending them somewhere like that was enough to keep many people in line. Certainly "eternal damnation" is a lot scarier to those who believe in it than spending a few years in prison.
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Is this really surprising? One of the main purposes religion served "back in the day" was to keep the unwashed masses under control. They were almost completely uneducated / illiterate but they could understand the concept of a big bad place called "hell" (or whatever underworld their religion believed in) and a fear of "god" sending them somewhere like that was enough to keep many people in line. Certainly "eternal damnation" is a lot scarier to those who believe in it than spending a few years in prison.