Why is it that when someone tells you that there are over a billion stars in the universe, you believe them?

In the universe, there is much available knowledge, so much in fact, that one man could not possibly learn it all, and in fact, he would learn even less if he had to discover each piece of knowledge for himself.

Our understanding of the universe comes from thousands of years of study with trillions of dollars worth of equipment. A single development can take a lifetime or more. It took Ernestine nine years to perfect relativity, and relativity needed further correction, and it took eight years and millions of dollars to compleat the human genome project.

Because of the inpheasable nature of each man learning everything, we set up a system in which research institutes and scientists dedicate their lives to searching for the truth, that they can share that truth with the rest of humanity. With thousands of men searching for thousands of truths, thousands of things may be learned in a decade where as an individual trying to start from scratch would not constitute significant progress in human understanding.

One man can dedicate his life to finding a single truth, and that truth is his gift to humanity.

I do not personally touch wet paint, but I would attribute the compulsion to do so as part of the natural compulsion to find a thing out for yourself. In the case of wet paint, it takes not more then a few seconds to check and does not require any financial resources.

When dealing with the stars, one would have to spend a lifetime counting and billions of dollars on telescopes and computers and the like. Most people lack the will and means to do this.

It is the fact that we can not learn everything on our own that we are forced to listen to the experts. The experts, in turn, need reputation, which is to say, they have to establish themselves as reliable or else they will fall. Groups such as Harvard and men such as Stephen Hawking spend time in study, and then check their studies for accuracy before release so as to keep their reputation untarnished. The need for good reputation keeps them accurate, whilst the need for information makes them necessary.

It's because some paint, especially semi-gloss and gloss finish, looks wet when it's actually dry.

And we accept the estimate of a billion stars because we don't truly care whether it's a billion or a billion and a half, or what.

I look up at the stars with binoculars and know that they are too many for me to count.

Touching paint can be a desire to be the first with the news "The paint is dry!"

LMAO several times, definitely the best question I've seen today.

Stars, over the years I have looked at tens of billions, so they tell me.

The search for the eagerly anticpated answer to the question, has it dried yet?

I don't know what kind of morons you have been hanging out with but if someone tells me there is wet paint, I leave it the F alone.

flashback

as i looked up to the sky i saw many many bright lights

and that was the day that i saw many many stars

but who knew how many there were

.

when i saw that their were many many galaxy then i knew that who knows how many stars there were and therefore some i believe that their are an unlimited number of stars

That would be the milky dude, the universe has uncountable stars

Both can be checked, in essence I'm not believing either of them on faith, I'm believing them because they happen to be true.

I have counted and I can tell you there are 8,177,983,269 stars in the universe.

There are some things I just accept, and that's one of them.