It all goes back to one basic, and none of the posts have changed that one iota.

HEAVEN is a carrot, to acquire which the faithful are admonished to do as they are told, failing which there awaits the big stick called HELL.

Whatever posters may make of it on a personal level, it was, and is, an invention of organised religion, for precisely the above purpose.

The Greek Hades was the God of the underworld, the place dead people went to, not just evil people. Once there they were judged by a panel of three judges, Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus, who pass sentence. The very good go to the Elysian Fields. Others are singled out for special treatment. Sisyphus and Tantalus being prime examples of the latter.

The Catholic Church seized upon it as a controlling mechanism for the population as well, over the years, as a source of considerable income in return for indulgences.

Don T.