The nature of religious controls.

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Abstract
"Religion is certainly one of our most important institutions for influencing human behavior. Since religions, of one form or other, occur so regularly in almost all known human societies, one may examine, the proposition that religion performs an important biologic function for the group, which creates survival value for the religion." 5 devices "by means of which behavior can be influenced: imitation, communication of affect, intervention ia the pursuit of instinctual gratification, obedience, and disarming by vulnerability" are discussed with reference to organized religion. A sixth mechanism, "controlled regression," is "encouraged by religion to facilitate the regulation of behavior." On the assumption "that we are able to learn and to use effective technics of behavior regulation, are we sure that we can use them more wisely than religion has?".

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