heaven the carrot hell is the stick They are both motivational tactics. Religion is an attempt to move humans from animalistic to civilized, that's a pretty big chore given our evolutionary drives.It takes them both. Secular Humanism is such a subtle, intellectual idea that I don't think it could influence human behaviour on a large scale like heaven and hell can. Just having peace of mind is a tough sell against lust.
Thanks glynch. Remember back in the day when we used to be at each other's throats as well as 2 of the more hated posters here? A lot has changed over the years and for me that has been a lot of life changes: marriage divorce having a son changing jobs several times having to move back in with my parents and changing a lot of my political views So much to bigtexxx's chagrin and dismay, I am another "liberal".
It's bad marketing - that much I can say. A. Questions only work if the reader agrees with the premise. In other words, it only works if someone thinks they are going to eternal hell. If they don't it has the opposite effect. My guess is people who think they are already going to eternal hell are pretty screwed-up. B. Fear only works to move people to take a specific action. Fear narrows your focus. For that reason, if you want someone to buckle their seatbelt, fear can be very effective. "If you don't take 2 seconds to buckle your seatbelt, your chances of dying on this ride increase 5000%" However, it fails when the reader has to think instead of act - "If we don't come up with better ideas, we will fail as a company" will actually have the opposite effect. This message fails on both accounts. Thank god these guys don't actually have good marketers working for them.
I drove by there on my way home tonight from playing bridge and they have changed their sign! It now reads something like "Those ears will not listen to the truth but their ears will listen to fables." Or something like that...