Why is it that when someone tells you that there’s billions of stars in the universe,you believe them. But if they

Question: Why is it that when someone tells you that there's billions of stars in the universe, you believe them. But if they tell you there's wet paint somewhere you have to touch it?
- Keywords:
  paint,
  star,
  tempt,
  wet
Asked by corange to Amy, Drew on 24 Jun 2011.
- Drew Rae answered on 24 Jun 2011:
  
  Good question! I reckon if someone said that there are exactly 14 stars in the sky tonight, I would start counting.
- Amy MacQueen answered on 24 Jun 2011:
  
  Probably because you feel unable to check the “billions” claim but your curiosity is aroused with the paint one! I would say that if you want to be a true scientist you would question the “billions” too and try to understand more about it so that you could verify whether or not it really was likely to be true! Science is all about discovering, and re-discovering. Sometimes we get things wrong (actually often!) – always question and always check!!! 🙂

Question: Why is it that when someone tells you that there's billions of stars in the universe, you believe them. But if they tell you there's wet paint somewhere you have to touch it?