It's amazing what people without a true foundation to anchor their faith on will believe.
When you really don't know what you really believe in, you tend to grab here and there in other places for (spiritual or non spiritual) things that you think will support your weight in times of disaster.
It's common for people to actually invent those anchors.
But sadly, when you invent a support system, and tragedy strikes, most of the time what you thought you knew and believed, you forget, and you find yourself alone in an echoing darkness with nothing real to grab on to.
Truth is something that we need ALL the time. It begins with knowing who we really are, what we really need, and most of all, who God is.
Jesus prayed, "Father sanctify them in Truth; your WORD IS TRUTH".