The ambivalence of advances in the natural sciences and technology at times leads to unavoidable risks that result in a probe of public trust. By comparing the positions of Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Niklas Luhmann, Jürgen Habermas, Norbert Elias and especially that of Karl Jaspers with its philosophical roots in Kant and Kierkegaard, it becomes clear that any recourse about trust cannot take place without faith in reason. Here, one of the most difficult obstacles is what Jaspers called 'science superstition" (Wissenschaftsaberglaube).