Hrm. Mostly as above. a lot of people don't apply belief to facts (whether they use the phrase believe or not) simply because it seems a bit silly. "I believe in my coffee mug." Why? It's there.

I think the idea is that belief requires some sort of *faith*, and that fact supposedly doesn't.

that may not have been coherant but I tried.

Sure, you *do* believe in the postman. but one (sometimes) connotation of belief is that of faith/effort, not dissimilar to that you would place in God. Believing int he postman is not an active thing.