Our knowledge of what we think the world to be is largely determined by what we are taught in our youth, usually at an age before we understand that there is such a thing as deception. Lessons learned at an early age become the core of emerging personality, and even when recognized as being in error, can be unlearned only through an intense effort of will.

One of the most common devices used to teach falsehoods is the "everybody knows" method. Such lessons are above the need for proof and are never questioned because, after all, "everybody knows"...

For example, "Everybody knows" that religion is generally a source of good. But those who hold such an opinion are woefully ignorant of the actual facts, which show that religion, throughout its long and bloodstained history, has been a tool of enslavement. The Egyptians built the pyramids by promising the workers a life after death. The Vikings made the price of the afterlife to die with a sword in ones hand. The families of the Crusaders gained heaven only through the bloody deeds of the Crusader himself.