> People often say that religions were founded to assuage existential fears.
Well, that's one theory. Another theory is that religions evolved from scary stories used to keep people in line (or, more charitably, to make them cooperate in prisoner's dilemmas instead of defecting against each other). That way, introducing hells before heavens makes more sense.
It does. I guess that hells are for the true believers and heavens are for outreach and marketing. Since most religions start with an internal and tribal focus-- in one theory, to extend the will of powerful people (ancestors, who evolve into gods) after their deaths-- we'd not be surprised.
Most ancient religion's hells (that we know of) weren't punishment hells at first, though. Hades and the Babylonian afterlife weren't torture chambers (that came later, with the Greek Tartarus and the Christian hell). They were just undesirable, gloomy states.
Well, that's one theory. Another theory is that religions evolved from scary stories used to keep people in line (or, more charitably, to make them cooperate in prisoner's dilemmas instead of defecting against each other). That way, introducing hells before heavens makes more sense.