In what ways does religion act as a form of social control in contemporary society?

Religion teaches you that if you commit certain crimes or sins you will be punished in the afterlife by going to hell. This is how social control was perfomed years ago, before there were major law enforcement agencies punishing you for crimes that you commit. It made you believe that if you did something wrong, then you would be punished and sent to hell for it.In what ways does religion act as a form of social control in contemporary society?
Religion controls in 2 ways (All religions except Taoism i understand):-





1. The bribe if your nice 'you'll go to heaven and if you naughty 'you'll go to hell'





2. the preaching of contradictory ideas requiring you to contact them to ask how to resolve the conflicts in life.





Organised religion is not about belief but about its own self perpetuation and as such tries to keep the society under its influence.





I have nothing about belief in heaven, reincarnation, the God/Force etc and idea on how to respect each other but the control of people by doctrine that has no place in today's society other than habit os morally wrong as is the way it persecutes certain groups and tried to convert all others to its ways.In what ways does religion act as a form of social control in contemporary society?
I think it was Karl Marx who described Religion as: ';Opium for the masses.'; I think that is a fair description of Religion.





Religions are all based on the suppression of desires. I.E. Don't do this! don't do that! be a good boy and you will be go to heaven. Religion serves as a form of social control in two ways, stop people from doing anything ';wrong'; by installing in them hope that if they behave themselves they'll have the afterlife to look forward too. (Maybe people thought that if the Police can't keep the working class in check maybe religion will.)





Regardless of whether it has been used to hoodwink the masses will pretty soon be irrelevant because soon it will simply not be enough to satisfy people. The financial crisis may have seen an increase in people returning to religion but this will be short lived because people will start demanding more than the psychological crutch that religion provides. They will demand the truth.





Have a look at the following link It gives a better explanation of the above:





http://www.laitman.com/2009/01/in-the-mo鈥?/a>





And if you would like to see how we create a better society have a look at the following link:





http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g94iWT2SIw鈥?/a>
It acts as a form of socail control, because Religion has guidelines on how to live your life. It acts as an authority for your actions. People alwyas attempt to justify there actions... religion leaves no room for the attempts to justify a person actions.





Ex. ';I stole this .... because dude owed me money.';


U can say this is right or wrong... but from a religious pt. of view.. Stealing is wrong, pt. blank.