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Instilling fear is a favorite strategy of religions. Fear is a potent tool. When a religion teaches that hell awaits those who don't believe, and that the tenets of the faith cannot be modified by experience or evidence, it can perpetuate all kinds of evil.
For example, in the United States, there are religious leaders who call for stoning to death adulterers and homosexuals. They may not have many followers (although they do seem to be attracting more and more), but it's also true that more moderate Christians rarely speak out against them. Why? Because these "extremists" are preaching exactly what the Bible says, and "good" Christians who believe the Bible is the word of God are afraid to speak against it.
Consider for a moment if we could have killed Hitler in 1938, to prevent the horrors he committed. Unless you are a pacifist, you might feel this would have been a good thing. Now consider the reported actions of the God of the Old Testament, and what evils he preached. He is clearly on a moral level of Hitler. Should we not condemn his words, and destroy him if necessary in self defense and in defense of those we love?
Now, if the idea makes you feel the slightest bit uneasy because of your past religious conditioning, you understand the power of fear. Millions of moderate Jews and Christians who do not wish the harm to others that their God demands in his "words" still tolerate him and ignore the harm caused by those who do take those words seriously. Many did the same when Hitler came to power.
Furthermore, to the extent that one believes this nonsense and feels this fear, he or she will certainly want to impose the faith on children and anyone else under their influence. Love for others requires that the person protect them from hell, after all.
What can we do about this instilling of fear, this potent replicator of faith?
There are a number of ways to do this. Here are a few.
We can point out that this god supposedly sends people to hell and tortures them forever out of jealousy of other gods. We can point out that the same fate awaits a man in the jungle who does not have faith in Bible he has never seen. We can show the horror stories from that Bible, like the one where God sends a bear to tear apart children who teased a prophet. Why do all of this?
We want to point out that this god is not "loving" as claimed. My own experience is that when people see the true evil of the Biblical god, they cannot help but feel indignation. Anger may be closely related to fear, but this is just a first step. The process results in a person not wanting to believe in such an evil monster, which leads to questioning the faith, then doubting it, then hopefully dropping it.
We can't be afraid of a god we do not believe in. We cannot easily believe in a "loving" god who shows hatred and cruelty in "his" words. Take away the credibility of the beliefs and you remove the fear that they provoke.
Another way is to lead by example. I've had many friends who obviously wanted to be free of their limiting and irrational beliefs, but they hesitated because of the fear of completely leaving the faith. To look to the sky and give God the finger, and swear at him, for example, would terrify them. When they see me do it, they laugh uncomfortably, and notice I am not struck down by lightning.
This is encouraging to others who are full of fear. The example set - even a crude one like that above - helps them overcome the fear that their religion has cultivated in them.
Simply exposing religious people to us decent non-believers also helps take away the fear. They are taught incorrectly that only their faith can be a basis for morality. They can see by experience that contrary to what their religious leaders say, an atheist can be a decent, loving and happy human being.
Note: Some of you may think it is unfair to use the Nazi comparison when speaking about religious beliefs or religious leaders of the past. I will not lay out a case here, but just suggest that you actually read the Old Testament to see what it suggests, and read a bit of history to see what religious leaders actually did in the past. Do this, and you will see why I feel comfortable using the analogy.
Continues here... Holy Books