You say you think the mistrust is misplaced, then proceed to (in my opinion) explain why it is not misplaced in your last sentence.<p>It's certainly true that non-intellectual theories of the world can be very destructive if society places too much trust in them. That would be "superstition", I think. But it hasn't been the problem in the 20th or 21st century in most places.<p>Superstition does rack up its own respectable death toll though; a number of the <i>other</i> slaughterings that can't be credited to intellectualism of any kind <i>can</i> be credited to some large degree to superstitions, especially if you're willing to call racism a sort of superstition, which is at least debatable.