What comes first - the concept of evil or of some form of religion to protect us from the concept of evil.

If you wish folk to place their faith in your (or your religion's) ability to to remove their fears and protect them from the concept of evil - it is perhaps as well to eggagerate the concept of evil a little?

I am reminded of a trip to Florence and a fantasic mosaic ceiling in the Bapitstry there, hugely and grapically depicting what evils awaited those who strayed from the true path in the place 'down below'.

It was impressive enough to my jundiced 22th century eye. I wondered what the effect in the past - this ceiling would have had on visiting peasants who may have been unused to such fine buildings, such art and such concepts?