Just posted a new article on Story-Systems about the use of religion as a system of social control. It is one of many items from my “Approaches to Religion” section, wherein I am breaking down various common ways that religion are viewed by people today, so that we may pick out the best parts, fuse them, and ultimately move past them into something else. Here is an excerpt from my latest, which also brings up Marxism, Liberation Theology and Satanism:

By training people to internalize existing rules and power structures in the shape of quasi-magical stories, religions help maintain the shape of a society while minimizing the need for external controls. In other words, if you can teach everyone in your culture to have a priest, policeman, boss and parent inside of them, it prevents you from needing as many of those in the real world. Simultaneously, it creates a truly deep level of psychological programming which can be triggered as necessary by these people in the real world to keep you in line.