Define control

Religion appeared because of ignorance. However people were smart enough to take advantage from it. As the other guy said, they would tell other people: Do this or this god will punish you, therefore achieving control over the population at the time.
Religion appeared because of ignorance..NO BECAUSE OF THE THUNDER..
Just think when you was a child and the stories you would get told to frighten you
Like a ghost story and then they say after the story if you don't stop doing this i will get the ghost
the monsters or hell BUT you have been told a STORY to get you thinking about these monsters gods ghost and what not..
Now just think the BIBLES are stories to get you thinking JUST like when your a child getting told a GHOST STORY..
To control how you BEHAVE..
STORIES make you think..
Don't do that or you will die.. OH WHAT EVER..
Don't do that because some guy i knew once done this AND off you go with your stories to hit home more..
But all about CONTROL..
Nothing to do with ignorance we likes STORIES
Life is scary, if you are so much of a coward, brainwashing you with science or religion wont make much difference ..
And yes you can die, life is precarious.
That's even what darwin say, if you are too dumb to understand thunder, you will not survive ..
Religion did not invent death or thunder ..
And religion is not all about reward & punishment, job show this, if you only keep your faith to expect a reward , you are doing it wrong.
This stuff of reward punishment conditioning is more pavlovian than anything ..
It's not really what religion are about.
Jesus died on the cross for his belief, rather than having his faith to avoid pb lol
His teaching was not especially about avoiding thunder ..