[mdpopescu]

This is one of those instances where I find it difficult to accept honesty. The entire purpose of the public school system - in EVERY country - it to make you accept stuff without evidence, or AGAINST evidence.

E.g.: the Earth revolving around the Sun, the existence of Black Holes, the Earth being 5 billion years old and so on. I have daily evidence against the first, and no evidence for the others, all of which are accepted by everyone "because scientists / professors / everyone else says so" and any attempts to argue against it are ridiculed.

Let's not even go into Global Scamming, which has reached religious levels of hysteria. I mean, "the world is ending, give us money" is basically copied from the Catholic Church.

[paulryanrogers]

School shouldn't appeal to authority either. They should teach the evidence, and where that's impractical the conclusions of experts (with citations). School curriculum is often updated yearly.

If you doubt the sun is at the center of the celestial system there are some experiments you can do yourself to test that conclusion. Proving or disproving black holes may take significantly more effort.

What distinguishes religion is blind appeals to authority and claims about ancient, sacred truths which cannot be falsified.