Why fear fear?

Many faith based religions envelop their followers with fear and threats either through guilt or even more sinister, with alienation. Most faith based religions warn that if a member becomes a non believer or worse, an atheist, that they will be cast out in the afterlife yadayadayada. Through reason alone one can deduct that faith is merely a hope for something that cannot be proved or founded in reason. So why fear fear? The answer is simple. If faith based religions can scare reason out of their followers, the tithing wells will not dry up and the organizations will survive. Early founders of many religions understood that if the masses really used reasoning that they would become atheist. This is often why the masses were "read to" from the pulpit instead of being educated to read on their own.  Knowledge is power and religions have capitalized on this notion. That is the reason they are all the true faith in their own eyes. The branding and brainwashing of fear into modern cultures was started long ago but is alive and well today. Children are forced into religious beliefs before they are even old enough to reason that Santa Claus is a faith based character. This early instillation of fear into young impressionable minds creates a lifetime of uncertainty and a lack of fundamental reasoning on the population. Religions can teach morals without teaching fear. Morals are important for morals sake, not because you will be "blessed" in the afterlife. It is similar to eating healthy. Eating healthy is important for a strong mind and body. If you told someone that if they didnt eat healthy they would go to hell, they would look at you like you were insane. But if you tell a member of any of the mainstream religions that god is fake and you should be a moral member of society to benefit society, they would also look at you like your insane. Most people follow their religions guidelines for fear of punishment or for reward in the hereafter. Maybe if religions taught people to think for themselves and be just for the benefit of all, we could take the selfishness out of society. Religious wars are fought over differences. But all religions are stupid and if their members realized that no one church really knows its more correct on faith than the next church, maybe we could put these stupid religious differences aside and actually make the world a better place for everyone. Reason leads to evolution, fear and faith lead to idiocy.