Social control has its uses, such as convincing people it's not in their best interests to go around hurting other people!

Funny... I went to church every week growing up until I was well into high school. Few of the people there, even regulars, seemed to learn a damn thing... particularly when it comes to the treatment of others. They did however learn to be harmful and hateful and knee jerk judgemental about other people's lives without knowing even the basic facts of that person's life or even considering any sort of compassionate thought or response. I am not saying that this is true of all churches, but it's true of far too many.