Question Author
Zeuhl
/// At one level religion is effective at controlling populations however it doesn't prevent all 'savagery'.///
Yes I agree of course it doesn't, but amongst most 'ordinary men in the street', people no matter how poor, toed the moral line, much more than can be see today.
Come the Sabbath, all shops were closed, children were not allowed to play in the street, one could not even play cards, in one's home.
All pubs and entertainment venues, imposed strict opening and closing hours.
Most would don their Sunday best even though they had to retrieve them first from the pawnbroker on the Saturday and take them back in on the Monday.
Children would go along to Church in the morning with their parents and then along to Sunday School in the afternoon.
Marriage was sacrament, and couples 'living in sin' would be frowned upon.
These are typical examples were religion instilled a certain amount of discipline on the masses.
Of course there are examples of adults doing un-speakable things all in the name of religion, that has been widely shown throughout history.
But I was mainly talking about the actions of some of the youth of today, but having said that, there could also be lessons to be learned for some of today's adults.
Your examples of