Unbelief could also mean dropping in status in the here and now, with sometimes all-too-real consequences: if the faithless didn’t suffer outright persecution, they were often denied legal and social privileges and, in some Muslim communities, paid higher taxes. The reward for playing was connection and status in this life, and infinite paradise in the next. ‘Religion had never promoted such an idea before,’ writes Ehrman. ‘Christians created a need for salvation that no one knew they had. They then argued that they alone could meet the need. And they succeeded massively.’
