What is the most Successful Lie in History?

YolkBrushWork402@kbin.social to Moving to: m/AskMbin!@kbin.social – 47 points –

Whenever my mom says "Tell the truth you won't be in trouble." I would almost always end up telling the truth and i end up getting in trouble and she would talk to my dad and all kinds of things, what's the most successful Lie in History?

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Religions. All of them.

The exact lie would be: "There's a supreme being watching you. Now do as I say!"
That's the gist of all religions I know.

Richard Dawkins first coined the word ‘meme’ to describe a self-replicating idea, akin to a gene. He gave religion as a prime example with the form something along the lines of “statements X,Y,Z are true. It is your duty to make others believe this, or they will go to hell”.

It’s been 40 years - I can’t remember the original formulation 🙂