Many people are familiar with the term Stockholm Syndrome. For those of you unfamiliar with it, here is an explanation from Wikipedia:

Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in abducted hostages, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger or risk in which they have been placed. The syndrome is named after the Norrmalmstorg robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg in Stockholm, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28, 1973. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, and even defended them after they were freed from their six-day ordeal.

This seems to resemble Christianity in a way. Or any religion with salvation and damnation. I feel churches do employ these techniques to make better followers. Christianity starts off by telling you about the evils and pain of Hell, but then they tell you about salvation. If you just do whatever we say blindly and without questioning, you will make it to the next life and be happy. This produces a strong impact on people. They begin exhibiting signs of sympathy for their religion. Look at the people who defend the church at all costs against heresy, science and opposing ideas.

Psychologically, Hell can be an extremely scaring concept. It can take some people YEARS to get over those fears, even if they no long believe in the concept. Hell wasn’t even originally part of Christianity either. The Hell we know of today, only shows up in the New Testament. It was clearly an afterthought, to help control people.

I’m not sure that Stockholm Syndrome is the best analogy though; it may be too strong. Yes religion can have drastic negative effects, but is it equivalent to having a gun up to your head? If anything it is a watered down version of Stockholm Syndrome. What do you think?

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