Is one of the uses of religion to keep people who would otherwise do bad things from doing them...?

Question

...out of fear of punishment from a higher power?

Answer 1

Yes one of the many.

No higher power is actually required, a large flock above some critical mass would do.

Eg. the church goers was a pretty powerful mop when they decided to burn witches some hundreds of years back.

Answer 2

Yes, I think so. There were other codes of law found in surrounding areas that are similar the those in the old testament. Upon studying religion, it begins to become apparent that leaders of old barbaric societies invoked the name of god to get people to obey.  

Answer 3

yes~ that is one tactic of some but not all religions..

Answer 4

That is one purpose. Another purpose is because some people cannot figure out how man would find objective reasons for morality if the figure of a god did not exist as an ideal to shoot for.

"...human life, physical, mental, moral and spiritual, is an ordinary natural event attributable in all respects to the ordinary operations of nature; and that man's ethical values, compulsions, activities, and restraints can be justified on natural grounds, without recourse to supernatural sanctions, and his highest good pursued and attained under natural conditions, without expectation of a supernatural destiny." -- B.A.G.Fuller

"...Faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life: it is the negation of reason. But you must remember that religion is an early form of philosophy, that the first attempts to explain the universe, to give a coherent frame of reference to man’s life and a code of moral values, were made by religion, before men graduated or developed enough to have philosophy. And, as philosophies, some religions have very valuable moral points. They may have a good influence or proper principles to inculcate, but in a very contradictory context and, on a very—how should I say it?—dangerous or malevolent base: on the ground of faith."

“Playboy’s Interview with Ayn Rand,” March 1964.

Answer 5

Yes, and so far as I can see that is its only redeeming value.

Answer 6

Au contraire!

Answer 7

Yes -- its all about control.  The earliest form of government.