So I think that, for the most part, religion focuses on a rhetoric of conversion and retention techniques instead of encouraging people to find truth for themselves and experiencing the revelation of Christ on their own. Take a look:

. : Conversion Techniques :.

• Breaking sessions: that pressure a person until they crack.
• Changing values: to change what is right and wrong.
• Confession: to leave behind the undesirable past.
• Entrancement: open the mind and limit rational reflection.
• Engagement: that draws a person in.
• Exhaustion: so they are less able to resist persuasion.
• Guilt: about the past that they can leave behind.
• Higher purpose: associate desirability with a higher purpose.
• Identity destruction: to make space for the new identity.
• Information control: that blocks out dissuading thoughts.
• Incremental conversion: shifting the person one step at a time.
• Isolation: separating people from dissuasive messages.
• Love Bomb: to hook in the lonely and vulnerable.
• Persistence: never giving up, wearing you down.
• Special language: that offers the allure of power and new meaning.
• Thought-stopping: block out distracting or dissuading thoughts.

.: Retention techniques :.

• Asset-stripping: that denudes the person of the wherewithal to leave.
• Confession: to keep the person in a position of inferiority.
• Entrancement: to keep them in a controllable state.
• Isolation: separating people from dissuasive messages.
• Keeping busy: so there is no time even to think about leaving.
• Obedience: without questioning authority.
• Polarization: creating black-and-white choices.
• Special language: that leads you on to inner circles of power.
• Striving: so there is always something more you need.
• Thought-stopping: blocking out distracting or dissuading thoughts.