Neither heaven nor hell are real (unless they exist for us in this world and in our lifetimes)

. The Promise and the Threat.

Good cop; bad cop. Religion exists today as nothing more than a means of social control, and the appeal to religion is cynically exploited by our church-going pollies who want votes and will bend over backwards to appear to be devout in religion and oh, so reasonably tolerant of other religions, no matter what their personal opinions are.