Religion Is the Ultimate Chain Letter

We have all received a chain letter telling us to copy it and pass it on to X number of friends.Of course what these letters have in common is that they contain a story both positive and negative.The positive side tells of a man/ woman who won/found money/love/goodfortune or something very positive right after passing on the letter with the implication that this is the reward for passing it on.Of course the alternative to a positive reward is a negative punishment for not passing it on .This invariably takes the form of loss of money/job/spouse and just general horrific luck.This twin combination of reward and horrific punishment is enough to make a normal person blanche.However it gets worse when it is carried to it's logical conclusion and that is heaven and hell.An eternal run of good luck if you pass on the message or an eternal run of bad luck spent burning in hell if you don't.By comparison what happened to our earthly friends who did not pass on the chain letter is zero.Can it be any wonder that religion with it's many stories repeated over and over both positive and negative should be so powerful.Imagine if instead of receiving a letter you and you ancestors were handed a book one thousand times bigger than a letter with rewards and punishments one thousand times greater.Is it any wonder that such a powerful shocking book which supposedly comes from God no less should be repeated for centuries.If one is going to carry on a grand hoax it must be taken to the limit and that is where God comes in.Of course God loves his children and is merciful but has a concentration camp called Hell ready for anyone who does'nt pass on the message but no one said God had to be consistent! When people grow up they are supposed to be able to see and recognize a chain letter for what it is but so called holy books are so powerful that grown people can go their entire lives and keep doing what it says. A perfect analogy between two manipulative stories. You will never think about the message in so called holy books the same ever again.