We're in trouble
Well it seems as a culture we're still in child-adolescent state.
Recent research confirms that people behave better when they believe in a punishing Hell.
"The key finding is that, controlling for each other, a nation's rate of belief in hell predicts lower crime rates, but the nation's rate of belief in heaven predicts higher crime rates, and these are strong effects..."1
and similarly people are more productive:
Interestingly, in 2003 Harvard researchers found that the gross domestic product (GDP) was higher in developed countries when people believed in hell more than they did in heaven.
Crikey -- the race is doomed if that's our level of maturity.
I think it's fair to say that if we only behave reasonably because we fear being punished, then that speaks of our immaturity. If we only 'work hard' because we fear punishment, then we're not a highly-evolved species. And given the reality of ever more pressing world-circumstances, that lack of maturity doesn't seem to bode well for us enjoying a sustainable, expansive and dynamic future.
["The findings are published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE."]