BLIND faith

How? Because you can't check everything yourself. At some point you say, "okay, this person seems smart and friendly, and is definitely more experienced than me, so I'll accept this statement as true". Or, similarly, "everyone around me, who is more experienced and seems somewhat smart, accepts this statement as true. It is probably true". Without that, you need to reinvent the wheel. And then the chariot. And if you're an absolute genius, you'll get to calculus in your lifetime. So you need a starting point, a starting truth. Assuming that textbooks are mostly correct is usually okay, until you get to the cutting edge of research. Then, there's a blurry line between 'true' and 'shown in a lab once in China', and the few books you looked at recently might not even be right because they're 20 years old. If you dig into this - start looking at the studies that led to whatever 'fact' you're questioning - then unless you're in math, you'll find something shaky or possible biases with the research protocol, and there's always the chance that it was a freak irreproducible result. Just about everything you know is based on faith. Usually the source is a textbook or teacher, but you usually take on faith that they are correct. Even when what you 'know' is based on science, you're still trusting the researchers (or more likely the PR department that told you about the research, or your friend's interpretation of the press release...). Nowadays, "Science" happens to be a more reputable source than "Religion", so you choose to trust the better source and sneer, with much public support, at whoever prefers the worse. Now, consider the costs and benefits of publicly accepting/rejecting a belief that is widely held by the people you value in your community. Pointing out the flaws in a group's logic probably won't win you many favors (job, security, reputation), and could very well harm your social standing. Whatever your personal views on the belief are, it could make more sense to not display them, or as an added security measure, to not question them in the first place and just assume them to be true. Notice that this can apply to science, religion, superstition, trivia... tl;dr Most of what you know is based on faith anyway, and being right is often secondary to not pissing off your tribe