And if you have Heaven as a place where you’re rewarded for you goodness, and Hell is a place where you’re punished for your evil, then you sort of have control of the population.

“Religion is always in the control business, and that’s something people don’t really understand. It’s in a guilt-producing control business. And if you have Heaven as a place where you’re rewarded for you goodness, and Hell is a place where you’re punished for your evil, then you sort of have control of the population. And so they create this fiery place which has quite literally scared the Hell out of a lot of people, throughout Christian history. And it’s part of a control tactic.” (From 2015)

Here’s an interview retired Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong did with Keith Morrison of Dateline NBC back in August of 2006.

A partial transcript of the interview can be found beneath the video link:

Not believing in hell and the devil is 2 of several things I love about Unity. Now if they would drop the belief that the "ego" is the inner "devil" it would be even better.
Dallas Kent: You were created in the image of the creator of the Universe. Our world is a result of people failing to take personal responsibility for their words, actions and relationship with the creative force. The only Satanic forces out there are willful ignorance, personal prejudice and fear. Revelations was written 320 years after the death of Jesus and not included in the Bible, by the Vatican, until 720 A.D. for purely political fear and control purposes. Spirituality is God given. Organized religion is man made. Thus the phenomenon of man creating God in his own fearful, intolerant image Unity Charleston SC

Teddy Gingerich Well, we with functioning brains have known this for a long time. Religions were invented by early humans to explain the natural phenomena they didn't understand. When humans began to develop knowledge about the world and its science, religion became a powerful tool to control people. It has been just that ever since.

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Ron Alexander Unfortunately, the "new age thinkers" has twisted Freud"'s concept of the ego into the "devil".

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Teddy Gingerich "New age thinkers" don't really understand Freud. As with all concepts that require study, they prefer bumper-sticker statements and the Cliff Notes versions of complex subjects. I'm not a fan of most of Freud's thinking, but I did learn enough in school to understand his methodology.

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Ron Alexander Teddy Gingerich Yes, the ego was the middle, moderating part of his system between the Id (the instinctual "snake" lower brain) and the Superego, the higher more rational part. He even called the ego conscious mediator....!