Both Machiavelli and Thomas More concluded that you couldn’t have a just society unless there was a large element of fear, specifically the fear of Judgement Day and the after-life.

I would give a lot to be able to interview (Saint) Thomas More (who himself single-handedly did sterling work instilling fear into the subjects of the king.  But that is a different story).

ME:   Sir Thomas, you have been dead for nearly 500 years.  What did , er, you know who, say to you when you got up to heaven?

MORE:   He never turned up.

ME:  But you’re a saint of the Catholic church.

MORE:   You bet.  You’d think I would fly first class. But no throne, no angels, no Holy Ghost, no Jesus.  Just a great void.

ME:  No burning fiery furnace with screaming Protestants in it?

MORE:  No.  I think I saw Zeus in the distance, but otherwise I’ve been whirling around in the atmosphere ever since.  I feel a bit embarrassed at believing all that stuff we were fighting over. But things are looking up. They are thinking of incorporating my atoms  into a sheep.