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== Film ==
* In ''[[Leap of Faith (
== Literature ==
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** Ironically, though Fosterism was founded by scam artists looking to get paid (and laid) by gullible people, their Supreme Bishops {{spoiler|become archangels when they die. Or perhaps resume archangelic identities they had prior to being born on Earth. It's not that clear.}}
* Bokononism in ''[[Cats Cradle|Cat's Cradle]]''. Quite openly.
* Hillman Hunter of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin Missing Adventures|Missing Adventures]] novel ''The Crystal Bucephalus'', the Lazarus Intent was deliberately founded by a [[Con Man]] as a source of suckers who would bail him out when he finally got himself into real trouble.
* The book ''Leaving Fishers'' by Margaret Peterson Haddix is about a girl who joins a cult called Fishers of Men. Among the many other things wrong with it, one thing she finds out at the end {{spoiler|when she de-converts}} is that the head of the cult is using their donations to support a lavish lifestyle, while making it out as though he can barely afford things. {{spoiler|The main character admits to having given the cult her college savings...}}
* In ''[[
* Fighting a scam religion forms the main plots of books eight and nine of ''[[
== Live Action TV ==
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* ''[[Law and Order]]'' ''[[Special Victims Unit]]'' the SVU team take on a cult leader, who brainwashes women into his cult by making them his wives so he can get access to their bank accounts.
** If it's the same case I'm thinking of, said cult leader also brainwashed married women ''and'' their husbands into becoming part of the cult. Then he'd secretly kill off the husbands and convince the wives that the guys had abandoned them, thus mindcontrolling the women even more.
* [[Stargate SG
== Radio ==
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* ''[[Dragonlance]]'' had the Seekers, who used the void left after the gods abandoned the world in the wake of the Cataclysm to seize power by peddling false religion.
* ''[[Pathfinder]]'' features the Church of the Living God, a [[Cult]] run by a man in [[God Guise]] who employs mages disguised as priests to enforce his will.
* ''[[
== Theatre ==
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* ''[[Fall From Heaven]]'' has a spirit magic user in the backstory who regularly did this.
* ''[[Fable|Fable II]]'' features [[Fun
** And hookers. Don't forget the hookers.
** In the first game, the backstory reveals that both Avo the God of Good and Skorm the God of Evil are fakes invented by an enterprising merchant as a way of collecting money from the donations of followers. The scam works because their temples are built over places of very strong naturally occuring magical energy, so the power itself is real, even though the deities themselves are not.
* ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]]'' has Pastor Richards, who is raising money for a Salvation Statue to save himself and his followers from the apocalypse. He admits on the radio his plan to use the statue money to build a mansion in Hawaii.
* ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' has the Church of Yevon. It teaches that Sin was a divine punishment for using machina, that machina weapons are evil, that Sin will go away with enough prayer and repentance, and that the Final Summoning can free the world from Sin. While it's true from one point of view that machina brought about Sin (Bevelle won the war because of their superior weaponry, and Yu Yevon created Sin as his revenge), they are not inherently evil and Sin is not divine; the church uses this lie to keep the populace under control (no advanced weaponry = harder to overthrow the church). Sin will not go away with any amount of prayer or repentance, and the Final Summoning is actually how Sin is reborn; this lie is used to give the people false hope and keep them ignorant of the true state of things. It's made very clear that the Maesters are fully aware of the continued lies they spread.
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* ''[[South Park]]'' has portrayed both Scientology and Mormonism is this way. Ironically, other episodes have shown that Mormons are the only people who get into Heaven, [[Spoof Aesop|so it's not taking itself that seriously]].
** That said, the episode about Mormonism was pretty much entirely "Woah, Mormonism is a load of bull -- but Mormons are the sweetest people on Earth, so who cares?"
* ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (
* Sympathetic example: in the ''[[
* In ''[[Prince of Egypt]]'', this is how the Egyptian mythology is portrayed. The High Priests replicate Moses' stick-to-snake miracle, but it's all about creative lighting, ominous statues and chanting, sleight-of-hand tricks and big helping of showmanship. While Rameses is impressed, he fails to notice that Moses' snake devours the priests' snakes during the [[Villain Song]]. The priests are later exposed when they prove to be utterly useless against the Abrahamic God's ten plagues.
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