Utility of Religion | godfree110158's Blog

"When a man firmly believed that if he violated the sacredness of a particular
sanctuary he would be struck dead on the spot or smitten suddenly with a
mortal disease, he doubtless took care not to incur the penalty; but when
anyone had had the courage to defy the danger and escaped with impunity, the
spell was broken.... Unquestionably the conviction which experience in time
forced on all but the very ignorant, that divine punishments were not to be
confidently expected in a temporal form, contributed much to the downfall of
the old religions and the general adoption of one which, without absolutely
excluding providential interferences in this life for the punishment of guilt
or the reward of merit, removed the principal scene of divine retribution to
a world after death. But rewards and punishments postponed to that distance
of time... must be awarded not definitely to particular actions but on a
general survey of the person's whole life, and he easily persuades himself
that, whatever may have been his peccadilloes, there will be a balance in his
favor at the last.... The sole quality in these punishments which might seem
calculated to make them efficacious, their overpowering magnitude, is itself
a reason why nobody (except a hypochondriac here and there) ever really
believes that he

or she

is in any very serious danger of incurring them.
Even the worst malefactor is hardly able to think that any crime he has had
it in his power to commit, any evil he can have inflicted in this short space
of existence, can have deserved torture extending through an eternity.
Accordingly religious writers and preachers never tire of complaining how
little effect religious motives have... on lives and conduct, notwithstanding
the tremendous penalties which are alleged to await."

John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873, "Utility of Religion"