&quot;Even you, yes you the rational atheist computer scientist on hacker news, believe many many myths right now. Many which don&#x27;t matter, many you will never know are myths.&quot;<p>Who actually replicates experiments to determine what they should accept and reject? Sure, you&#x27;ve learned not to touch a hot stove, or that ice cream is delicious, but how do you know the age of the earth, or what the employment rate is? You know what you trust when it comes to abstract things. Scientists have a track record of delivering results, so you trust what scientists say. Fair enough - time is short and we all can&#x27;t be empiricists, and scientists themselves need to divide their labor and trust each other. But still there is a medium delivering the good news to you, rather than you finding it for yourself. There are better safeguards against lying than there were in the past, but I see this more as a difference of degree rather than kind.