If you take religion from it's infancy - pre-bible [gasp, yep, before God, the prophesies and Jesus] than yes, there was no punishment for sin per se.  In fact if you look at most pre-Christian or even religions that existed with Hebrews/Jews they had no problems with sex outside marriage, worshipping many gods, etc.  The laws about stealing and such were not religious but community based and some cultures/religions did not see it as sin - look at Indians - the feathered kind not the dotted - they had no problems reconciling with their Gods stealing stuff - including chicks. 

 

There are a handful of major religions that do believe in Sin, the Devil and Hell but most believed if you fell in battle, lived a good life and such you were good.  Even Egyptians did not have a hang up about the afterlife in the belief that there was a hell - if your heart was not good you just simply stopped existing - and good was not tied into believing any one particular god - you had several to choose from. 

 

The concept of sin is really just taking doing bad things and upping the consequences to a whole new dimension because a lot of cultures and religions did not have such stuff and Christians, Jews, Muslims and such wanted to give people yet another reason to do what they were told - on top of political reasons, laws and community beliefs.  It is something that evolved in some religions but a lot of religions don't have sin per se, they certainly don't have hell nor tortures beyond belief in the afterlife.  Take for instance Pagans - many different groups and yet none of them say yep you slept with so and so therefore your going hell.  They don't care who you slept with and neither do the Gods.  Go figure.  Buddhist believe in reincarnation - not hell - until you become a balanced and good person you keep plugging at life - one life time after another but no hell fire, damnation nor demons. 

I agree that hell is the ultimate trump card pulled out when they want you to go along with political agendas and such, but not all religions believe in hell - certainly not all people believe in hell.  So the problem is that we allow politicians to spout the garbage oppose to giving us sound and reasonable cause for actions, laws and such - we vote them in - we can vote them out.  But we as a whole have decided to continue to vote the same morons in on both sides.

I would not say 95% of the population - even if you narrow down to religious population is in love with political leaders and such.

 

As to naming five other religions - again depends on the religion of the person - more Buddhist, Pagans, Agonistic and such are climbing in numbers in America.

 

Personally I can name more than five and I am religious - Buddhist, Pagan, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hinduism.  You can break down pagans into Greenwitch craft, Egyptian based, Arthurian based, even angel based pagans such as the Strega Pagans, then you have the pagans who utilize the Greek religions/myths, you have eclectic pagans, etc.  Heck, I have recently learned that there are a wide variety of Celtic and/or Druid pagan groups.  You have different sub groups of Muslims, Christians, Jews and so forth.  There are millions of religions and not all align with hell fire, damnation and such.  In fact, quite a few don't.

Did the break down on religions in America - as I thought 95% was off for hell inspired groups but the numbers break down thus way:

19.1% of the population is non-Christian/Muslim/Jew

.6% is Muslim

1.7 Jewish

23.9 is Catholic and 51.3 is Protestant - now the Protestant is broke down further - and keep in mind several of the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant religions have "liberal" and moderate members.  There are several catholic and protestant groups that actually protest other catholic and protestant fundie stances on a variety of topics including homosexuality, stem cell research, abortion, etc.  I can list the groups as I have done before but it shows that not all us "nuts" are truly Fundie Nutty Bars nor do they support Fundie causes, etc.

 

I think the real question should be why do we keep electing the same idiots over and over again - what is malfunctioning because apparently religion is not the "sole" "cause: for stupid elected officials.   Obviously there are enough people in the demographics shown that could vote out the boobs so either they are not voting or they are going with the least moronic of those running for office.  Which then puts the solution to getting them out squarely on the shoulders of those who disagree with the politics of those in office who use hell fire, damnation and Jesus as their beating stick. 

 

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/09s0074.pdf

There is a concept that some do not understand.

If you provide an unsolicited argument about me, that offers an invitation to engage in the argument.

Taken further, if you tell me to follow your religious law, then I would be invited to tell you to follow my religious law.

The result usually results in either a stalemate or a conflict.

The more mature action would be to keep your religious law to yourself thus removing a stalemate (which has no function) or removing a conflict(which has no end)

To answer the question "where are my rights?"...Your rights are with you, and you alone.

There is a concept that some do not understand.

If you provide an unsolicited argument about me, that offers an invitation to engage in the argument.  I totally agree that those - who try to tell you want to believe as well as do - then invite it and I say happy trails my friends.  But I would like it noted for the record - that plenty of intelligent and sane people can and do believe in God and also believe that that belief is not cause for forcing said beliefs upon others.  I think seeing the "any intelligent" person being asigned to only atheist is rather insulting and limiting for those of us who neither wish nor support ruling the earth "as in heaven".  ;-)

Taken further, if you tell me to follow your religious law, then I would be invited to tell you to follow my religious law.

The result usually results in either a stalemate or a conflict. Which is why both sides need to agree to disagree and keep religion at home or in religious settings and out of goverment, schools, laws, science, etc. and why at the same time there needs to be religious freedom for individuals such as myself to act like complete nuts in the privacy of my own home or among my nutty buddies.  If religious people stuck to keeping religion out of nonreligious areas then there would be fewer conflicts for sure and I agree they should - personally I do. 

The more mature action would be to keep your religious law to yourself thus removing a stalemate (which has no function) or removing a conflict(which has no end)  I agree.

To answer the question "where are my rights?"...Your rights are with you, and you alone. Yep,I agree.

There are a handful of major religions that do believe in Sin, the Devil and Hell...



That is the point, the MAJOR Religions all condone punishment for sin....those that don't play very almost no role in modern society