..the naive forms of Christian moral motivation - bare threats of hell and the bribery of heaven - stunt moral growth by ensuring believers remain emotional children, never achieving the cognitive moral development of adults. Psychologists have established that mature adults are moral not because of bare threats and bribes (that stage of moral development typifies children, not adults), but because they care about the effects their behavior has on themselves and others. Richard C. Carrier
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1. The naive forms of Christian moral motivation, such as threats of hell and the bribes of heaven, stunt moral growth by ensuring believers remain emotional children, never achieving the cognitive moral development of adults. 2. Even when these threats are replaced with more sophisticated methods of moral motivation, though, children's moral development is still stunted. 3. Psychologists have established that mature adults are moral not because of bare threats and bribes, but because they care about the effects their behavior has on themselves and others.

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