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It stems from much of our legal system being based on English Common Law. Under the common law system a child born in a marriage was deemed to be child of the marriage. That's where the old saying "Mothers baby, Fathers maybe" came from.
It was explained to me that it is based on the best interest of the child. If a man finds out he is not the father of a child but the actual father is unknown or unproven, it's in the best interest of the child for the man to continue to pay child support.
More or less, if you had reason to believe at some point in time that the kid might be yours, that's good enough for the court.