That's how preachers get money out of people. "You'll go to hell if you pass the plate without contributing. You'll go to heaven if you put a hundred dollar bill in the plate." They treat mythological places as if they were real, and they scare people with them.

Or both.

@BestWithoutGods As with all ideologies religion is static and sterile without adherents and/or practitioners.

@Geoffrey51 When one person tells a lie to another person, who believes the lie, it is true that the hearer is guilty of being gullible. But the problem began with the person who told the lie in the first place.

@BestWithoutGods Agreed. It’s the people and their motivation behind the agenda.

True, some religions are more liberal than others. The Unitarian Universalists are a good example. But I was raised in the Moron (oops, Mormon) religion. They taught us not to think too much, not to over-examine things, not to research the teachings of the church. They taught us that blind faith is all we needed. Listen and obey, and that's all we should do. I have heard such things in other churches, too. Such churches know that they are scamming the people, and they don't want the people to discover that it's just a scam. To them, blind faith is a virtue. Research is of the devil.

Also, I agree that some churches do very good charitable work. I applaud that. It's the mythology they teach, as if it were reality, that is a scam. If they would get rid of the mythology and only do good works, that would be great. Or, if they want to keep the mythology, they should acknowledge that it IS mythology, not reality.

@BestWithoutGods
The thing I notice is, regardless of official teachings, there are often individuals, in any congregation, who take the mythology more metaphorically, and focus on the practices. They are likely to always be outnumbered by the literalists, but “religions” exist at two levels really; at the group level, and at the individual practitioner level. And at this latter level there is a lot of variation.

But true.

@BestWithoutGods Agreed.