Freebase Dali

I observed something recently that made me evaluate the line that divides ignorance and superstition, and tried to visualize the distance between those shores without being blinded by the invariably murky waters between them.
I didn't get far.

The scenario:
I was lying in bed and I heard the door knob to my room rattle as though someone were trying to open it. I wasn't asleep, and no one else was in the house.
The process:
My first thought was "someone's trying to open my door".
The following thought was "no one is here but me".
The third thought that followed became:
The superstition:
Is there a supernatural force causing my door to rattle?

Now, I'm a huge skeptic of all things paranormal. But due to not having an explanation at the time, my instinct was to challenge my own belief system to provide an answer.
Are my beliefs set in such a shakeable foundation? Are everyone's?

I was able to recover my questionably infallible sense of logic when, upon inspection, I remembered that my printer makes a rattling noise when it auto-aligns itself after a period of inactivity. It sounds like a door knob.
And it's sitting on a shelf, right next to my door.

I'm using that experience as a way to ask these questions:
Is superstition merely a comfort, or just a stand-in solution to a riddle until it's finally solved?
How do believers in the paranormal justify their stance? Have they had experiences they can't explain, or never had an experience and just believe because it fits their way of thinking?

__________________