What do you think of the idea that religion is for controlling society?

no. no. religion doesn't control society because society has shown that religion can be just as manipulated as anything else.

There are many structures in society designed to control people, not just religions. In fact, we have to admit that humans need to be controlled to some degree, otherwise we wouldn't need to have a structure called the Law, which seeks to prevent people from doing things that harm others and the society. The Law does this by measures of punishment that, in each society, place a particular punishment on each infraction which to that society, is commensurate with the harm that the infraction does to the society. Religion is only a true way to control people in a theocracy, that is, a society where the religious leaders wield ultimate control. In any society there may be belief systems held by various members which either do, or do not, adhere to the basic system of law that the society has in place. If the tenets of any belief system or religion cause a member to violate the law, the law would reign supreme and not the religion. In the Christian faith, God originally sent laws for man to follow so that man could understand how to behave and not to behave. Was this control? Those who violated the most fundamental laws, like those against stealing and murder, would have to face society's punishments. In some ways it had to be in place to control the people, because God had not completed His plan for them. Jesus came and said that He would write the law on the hearts of the people, so that the desire to break God's law would not enslave them but that they would now be responsible to act in freedom and yet not sin. This is a much greater responsibility than just following laws. Acting on conscience rather than on the premise of sure punishment. In this way, Christianity does not control, it strengthens and enables people to follow God rather than evil.

There are certainly many religion-based countries, but most are not. Sometimes people act as if they wish it were a religious society here in the US. Frankly, not being a Christian seems to bother a lot of people, but those of us of other faiths or of no faith are equal with Christians in this country. They need to be reminded that this is a non-sectarian nation!

As a person live in a religious country and raised in a Christian religion, I believe that religion is a way of controlling our behavior. I carried all the values that was taught to me since I was a little boy until now. Although maybe I am not THAT religious, I always try to act faithfully to my religion, so I believe naturally humans will act align with this values. Sometimes, religion can also be a cause of riot and violence act, that happened if people misinterpret the religion which we all watched it happen on the terrorist act. They believe that it is the God mandate to do the bombings, 9/11 accident etc, which what they do is just causing fear and unfair treatment to certain people and countries in this world.

religion should not control anything, there is a authority there is struggle. but true religion bring true and peace. so faith is faith.

"True religion" has to control society and that is supposed to be its role. "True Religion" has to establish the basis for humans to have a life that makes sense. If society is led by True religiousness and we live guided by compassion, love, humility and forgiveness, probably we will have a better society. Of course, many members of different religions over the world got it wrong and have used religions for their own purposes thereby controlling society and hurting the world's consciousness.

I guess it can somewhat. Depending on the society. If its a society that is not tolerant of other beliefs, then it forces everyone to think the same. In doing this, all of the people abide by the same rules (mostly) and live by the same laws. So, it can be controlling, especially if fear is used to control people. My best way to put this is to say that an uncontrolling society can have religion as well, what's important, is how the people of that society respond to beliefs that are different or new.