Poe's Law

A few weeks ago, I came across this concept called Poe’s Law. Essentially what it says is that it is nearly (if not utterly) impossible to tell a religious fanatic from someone doing a parody of a religious fanatic. There is a specific incident that happened that brought this up. Days after the catastrophic earthquake in Japan, a video appeared on YouTube of a woman saying that this was God showing his existence, that the quake was a good thing, and how she was happy that it happened. You can imagine the negative comments that were thrown her way (one of which may have come from me, but I don’t recall). Within a day or two, the video was removed. Shortly after that, it was revealed that the whole thing was a hoax. I admit it: I was duped (then again, so were many other people, some of whom are far more savvy than I). It was probably still a little tasteless given the timing, but I actually thought it was a funny video after the truth came out.

On a slightly more serious note, it probably doesn’t say anything good about certain segments of the religious community that Poe’s Law is, apparently, credible.