[wincy]

A statement doesn’t have to be true to be justified.

The example I’ve heard of knowledge that is believed, untrue but justified is “porcupines can shoot their quills”.

A tribe that believes this fact is more likely to stay away from porcupines, and even though porcupines do not in fact shoot their quills, over time this superstition is beneficial to the tribe as their neighbors are more likely to get hurt or killed by dangerous porcupine quills.

Judaism taught long before modern germ theory revealed why it was beneficial in a purely rational sense that burying feces and ritualistic hand washing were important to please God.