Fear is such a corrosive thing!
Fear kept me in bondage to a cult for a couple of decades. I was literally paralyzed by the fear of being damned because I dared to think something contrary to the certitudes of those I had accepted as inspired representatives of a God I've since cast aside as a figment of other people's imaginations.
Every religious certitude I know of holds that fear of damnation, pain and horrendous punishment over the heads of its adherrants. If they're all right, then everybody is doomed to hell. Christians think muslims and other sects and denominations are and muslims have a correspondingly condemnatory approach toward Christians and other divisions of their own religion.
One of the most horrendous words humans ever invented is the word, "heretic." Thinking is made a crime -- a crime worthy of torture and death!
Religious faith isn't the only area of human life subject to the paralyzing effects of fear. Fear keeps people from taking chances that could bear very advantageous fruit if they'd just take a carefully considered or deeply desired step into the unknown. Just going to bed or getting up in the morning involves a certain level of risk. We can't play it safe all the time or we would effectively have no life worth living.
I've taken some of those steps, often with dire predictions from timid advisors about the big mistake I was making. Some were abject failures and others panned out just fine. In all cases, it was better than just sitting there, fearfully accepting the status quo.
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