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It's about control. You see, the one thing about religions versus let's say, business is that a religion can not be 'proved', it can only be believed. A business sells a product or service, that product or service is measurable in some way, either by the physical item or the result of the service. And while people would argue that religion is a service (and I suppose it is in a less tangible way) there is no burden of proof that the promises made are true. One can believe them to be true but that in and of itself doesn't make it true. I may believe in one God and believe that the very belief offers me some benefit while my neighbor may have a different God and yet, believes the same thing. The result is not measurable but only held to a personal outlook.

Religions, since they can not prove everything about their faith need a control point. That control point is sin and what awaits the sinner. In a business the control points may be availability, price, quality in other words, measurable points. If I want to sell a lot I might make my product the best, the cheapest, widely available. With religion in order to keep the faithful showing up every week there needs to be a benefit. Simply feeling good isn't enough. The promise of hellfire and damnation to those outside of the faith will do the trick. People, betting their afterlife on a particular faith need to be assured of hell and the way to avoid hell. This is where the sin and negativity come in.

Do I believe in sin? Absolutely, by our society's measures sin exists. Knowing we all sin or are capable of sin holding the key to the way out of the result of sinning is a powerful thing. If I hold the key, jump through this hoop, give this amount of money, win over more converts, say these magic words then I am in control and very, very powerful. If a religion simply said "don't sin as much as you can but if you do there is no effect on the afterlife, only the here and now" people would soon dwindle away. It has never been about feeling good, finding peace or any other positive benefit as much as it has been about controlling the faithful and the cost of feeling good because you know and obey the rules. I tell you what is bad and what you must do to avoid punishment. If you do not tow the line, you will pay bigtime in the afterlife.

This is why, no matter how good any organized religion starts out or how peaceful the prophet the religion ends up the same.

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