But what would be the motivation for such a hoax?
I'm glad you asked this question, although it could go a little off-topic. The answer I'm afraid is not scientific, it can't be; it concerns the conscience, the soul. It is about accountability and how all man naturally dislikes being held accountable to any authority. Don't deceive yourself, if you are truly deep down honest eg. the reason you don't want to park in that disabled parking when you're late is either because you care what people would think about you if they found out, or because you are concerned about a possible penalty from the authorities- either way there could be a consequence. Given that we live in an imperfect world we well know that most of our wrong-doings will go completely unpunished in this life, (and everybody does wrong, especially the "hidden" to others wrong, not so an all-seeing Creator)... As soon as we are compelled to believe in the existence of a Creator, we are confronted with the reality of some form of relationship with such Creator. Indeed a Creator who made us with such emotions, ambitions etc is most likely to be interested in us and this means we are laid bare before a supreme authority. Ouch! we don't like that idea, so we appease and numb our consciences and repeatedly tell ourselves that we are the result of an "accident" ie evolution.- We are therefore not answerable to a higher authority than the structures of man, that puts us at ease, Whew! we can do what we like therefore as long as we judge that it won't cause us harm or make us feel bad with our "lateral" human relations.
Edited by Genologist, : No reason given.