QED wrote: Of course some people know this as the transmission of memes. It's probably the main reason that the various Abrahamic religions are so dominant.
Though this discussion is probably a bit too serious for this particular thread, the topic of meme transference is about all the depth there is to Islam and Abrahamism in general. The invention of a damnation meme allows the priest class to dominate society. In most pre-Abrahamist cultures the priest class only played a tangential, though often important, role in subservience to the warrior/ruling class. In many of these cultures true "spiritual salvation", in the form of after life rewards, was only available to the warrior class.
Abrahamism changed this into a universal reward for obedience and elevated the priest class into the central social role by merging the warrior/ruling class into a armed servant of the priesthood. The "king" and the ruling class becomes first and foremost answerable to "God" ergo the priesthood. Universal reward strengthens the priesthood by ensuring social loyalty of all members.
1). God-meme as universal perfect creator,
2). Damnation of humanity for imperfection,
3). Salvation through obedience to God (ergo priest class)
4). Punishment, both earthly and divine, for disobedience.
If the system wasn't so destructive it could be admired for it's brilliance at social manipulation. The logical holes are not readily apparent to any semi-literate culture and the meme is universally enforced through violence. Only in the last few centuries have Christians feared damnation by God more than damnation by the priest class, and in the Islamic world the damnation by the priest class remains the major method of meme enforcement.
This complicated social-control system also makes it highly doubtful that an illiterate petty criminal named "Mohammad" invented Islam. "Mohammad" represents the conspiracy of new priest class seeking to gain power in 7th-9th century Arabia. Rebranding the Judeo-Christian meme sequence was a rather simplistic and effective way for this emerging priest class to quickly dominate the culture.
It makes for very interesting socio-historical inquiry. What makes it even more interesting is that you will have relatively educated people who adhere to this rather hollow story without questioning the details.