Religion both causes anxiety and relieves it through punishment and comfort

Evidence

This brings us back full circle to the delicate balancing act between supernatural punishment, which makes people be nice to each other, and supernatural benevolence, which helps people cope with their deepest anxieties. Once again, true to its paradoxical effects, religion is both the arsonist and the fire department. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 619

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The arsonist-and-fire-department framing is a genuinely tight characterization of religion’s dual role — a compact image denser than a one-line summary.
• APHORISMS: The image stands as a portable insight about any institution that both generates and answers existential dread.
• XREF: connects to: 1950s Catholic bedtime prayers and doctrine instilled death anxiety in children — Dolores DeLuce, Blow Jobs: A Guide to Making It in Show…, 71; Mid-century Catholic schooling instilled visceral death-and-damnation anxiety in young children — Dolores DeLuce, Blow Jobs: A Guide to Making It in Show…, 71