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Actually, quite a lot of religions start with multiple people being ""in on the joke/scam"", Scientology, Mormonism, Islam, etc.  You would be extremely hard pressed to figure out if & when Discordia got real followers, as its taken a very ""post-modern"" approach, but Discordia has had a very significant influence on Wicca, Neo-paganism, etc.  Its just not a black & whie issue, all it takes is for some people who really want to believe in a god to descide that Christianity sucks, and FSM is better in some post-modernist sense.   "