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and many women kept becoming pregnant whether they wanted to or not. This of course led to an underground birth control industry that would eventually be legitimized after laws were relaxed.

Religion has also taken over many indigenous people stating that if they didn't convert to Christianity, then these horrible things would happen to them. The church would then have complete control over them. They would make money off of the native people, have food provided to them, while the natives feared the consequences of this new god. However, even in native culture, these gods would culture every aspect of their life. In some cultures it was believed that you would have to eat the consume the blood of your enemies in order to be given the favor of the gods. So people would be in favor of war, so that they could not only expand their territory, but so that they could kill their enemies, consume their blood, and keep the favor of their gods. This of course made the leaders of these cultures incredibility wealthy more than anything, but was a means of controlling the people and encouraging them to keep building these empires.

Today religion has a major impact on how some people act. Rather than seeking out violence, some turn away, not because they want to, but because it isn't what god would want for them. People give up part of their money out of every paycheck which ultimately supports the church and keeps the highest members wealthy. They do this because their religion tells them that this is what is just and right.

The Amish for example gave up technology because of religion. Things like this happen all of the time, but they are a great means for controlling the people under that religion. Without these rules, people are free to do anything they want and especially in the past, this scared many of the nobles. If people were free to choose their government, who knows what they would have done differently in the past. If people didn't believe in a religion, there would have been little means of convincing people that a certain person should have authority over them, just because.

While there have been countless means of controlling people throughout the years, religion has by far been the most successful and widely used device, that is still in use today.

Learn more about this author, Clacky McSnackins.
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