> it's merely an explanation of why a successful religion (in terms of number of believers) might have such a rule: because the rule is what causes the success.

> it's merely an explanation of why a successful religion (in terms of number of believers) might have such a rule: because the rule is what causes the success. That would be a sad statement for a religion. But it also points directly to the problem. If a religion is successful only as far as it is able to control people, it is not actually very useful. Most religions do have extremely useful core concepts. That is true for Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. If we could just step back to recognize these core concepts all of "this" would just go away...