keeps the guilty coming back for more redemption !

Certainly the Abrahamic religions. Many Eastern philosophies seem jovio-centric, however (probably not a word but I’m sure you get the idea)

@Geoffrey51 If it's not, it should be.

And yet if you are unhappy it's a sign you've been sinning. So it's important to pretend to be happy so no one knows that in reality, you are sinning, even though it's probably only in your thoughts that you are sinning.

It's so complicated.

Useless maybe not so much for the religious leaders.....they use those concepts to control us. Fear is another one. When I was little...in Catholic school...I was terrified about hell and the devil. Gave me a terrible anxiety disorder. They can all go to the hell they created.

@IAmLove Yeah, well, I don't give a fuck about religious "leaders". I got my fill of them when I was a kid. I was raised catholic, too.
As soon as I was able, I stopped going to church, and all that garbage stopped.
I never believed their threats. I heard them all the time, but I never believed them. I always knew they were full of shit, so they couldn't scare me.

@KKGator I wish, looking back, that I had been as smart as you. I left a long time ago, but I really believed their crap for a long time. I cannot even describe to you how free I felt when I left....much to the chagrin of my family and some friends.

@IAmLove Oh, sweetie. I don't know that it had anything to do with me being "smart". It all just never made a lick of sense to me. I think I may have just been too literal as a child, and everything HAD to make sense to me.
Religion was nothing more to me than just more make-believe.
The biggest difference was you sometimes were beaten for not believing in it.
I also knew that wasn't right either.
I promise you, I took my lumps because of religion. Just solidified my position.