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Fear and Temptation

Analyzing the religious content and the modes of religious approach of those coming under its fold, we find that all religions have heavily relied on two important instruments for regulating and controlling the behavior of the flock under their control. These two instruments, by and large, have been fear and temptation. It is perhaps beyond any reasonable debate that this is an established fact. Religions have always held out to their devotees the temptation of redemption and a place in heaven, whether during the course of this life itself or after death. They have always tried to control and canalize man's behavior in a desired direction by trying to induce him to accept this temptation for the fruits offered by the respective religions. This is one side of the picture. How to enforce a man's behavior in the pursuit of the goal was the next question and here fear came in all too handy - the fear of punishment for swerving from the performance of religious rituals stipulated; the fear of punishment for not supporting the body of one's own religion in its continued existence; the fear of retribution for acts forbidden; and so on and so forth. Therefore, fear on one hand, and temptation on the other, would be a fair representation of religious activity, and religious control.

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