A question for atheists about proof...?

Question

For sake of arguement, I am a blind person. Prove to me that "blue" exists. "Blue" is something you know wholeheartedly to exist, and to doubt it would be foolishness... but since I cannot see it, and I think you're all a bunch of loons, pretending to have some sense that I do not.

Tell me... how would you prove to me that the color "blue" exists?

Without using a comparison... Tell me how it could be done.

Lesee... 4 insults... 4 with irrelevant answers... 3 returned with a question (nods in appriciation)... half have entirely missed the point...

...a HUGE thumbs up to J.P for actually answering my question....

...and a quizzical look to Danzarth, and the two that follow. O.o... if you do not use the "sense" of faith to find the object it is used to detect... that is, God, miracles, and so forth... wouldn't you, hence, be faith-handicapped? Does a blind man take offense at being called blind, when it is the truth?

After all... if the blind man had 100% opaque cataracts since the day of his birth... yet had them operated on and removed... would he not gain a sense he didn't have before? It isn't about "blindness by choice"... but rather... "sight by choice".

Answer 1

I would teach you the physics of light. Once I did so, I would teach you the biochemistry of the normal human eye, including the portion about the exhitation of retinal, the molecule responsible for the detection of color. By means of a frequency detector and a speaker, I would provide you an auditory signal relating to the frequency of light. I will give this to your left ear. With your right ear, I will give you an auditory signal relating to the reaction of petri-dish bacteria gengineered to produce the version of retinal responsible for the detection of blue. I would show that blue exists by showing a correlation between the particular frequency of light and the particular occurence of reaction from the bacteria.

This would prove the existance of blue satisfactorally.

Answer 2

It can't be proven, unless the blind person were to somehow regain his sight.
It can be argued that you can't prove that blue exists, even to people who can see it. I can see blue just fine, but how do I know it is really there, and not just a false sensory input?
If you really think about it, nothing can be proven. Ever. There will always be people who argue against any commonly accepted truth. This is how we advance as a society - by challenging the accepted norms.

The way you ask your question, you seem to be implying that a theist has some sort of sense or mental capacity that atheists do not have. I personally take offence at this suggestion, but it is so common that I can let it slide.

Answer 3

The fact that you're blind proves to me that either god doesn't exist or he doesn't cherish all of man kind equally. Why would he visit such an impediment on a handful of people and not everyone or no one.

As for your analogy... Blue has no consequence to you. Since you lack the ability to experience color why would proof of it's existence (or non existence) bother you?

Is my inability to experience god some sort of handicap in your eyes? Is your ability to experience something that may not exist an excuse to think you are somehow better than those who can't? Could it be possible that just as god has blinded your hypothetical self from visual experience, he too has blinded me from the experience of himself? How would doing such a thing be beneficial to either party if it were in fact true?

Your question is quite the can of worms.

Answer 4

You posted a question to atheists about proof, then all of this about blue paint and loons. If you're going to prove something, go ahead- - - prove it.
A more direct answer to your final question is that if I knew you were totally blind from birth, I would know that you would have absolutely no concept of what color is. There would be no reason to prove to you that any color exists.
It would be like preaching a four sermon to a totally deaf person.

Answer 5

Well, I give you credit for trying to be intelligent, sadly you missed the mark, waaayyyy offfff dear. You are, as most of your kind, trying use apples and compare it to oranges. You know it, I know it, and God knows it. Your being flippant and dishonest with this question, and let me tell you why. You assertion of using a blind person as a metaphor for someone who refuses to believe in God, presupposes you are blind by choice. Ahh, getting it yet? allow me to continue. You see, atheists come be their decision not to believe by virtue of having experienced life. Now, if they had not, and only were exposed to religious teaching only, then obviously they would not be atheist, but in fact religious in some way. A blind person has not seen any colour thus to describe something without a basis of reference would be impossible. The reason you believe is because someone wrote a book and that is your basis of reference. Your analogy is flawed in other ways but suffice to say, that most people, if smart enough, will see this question for what it is. Try again, only this time use the same fruit because at the moment your only making fruit salad.

Answer 6

That has to be the worst metaphor I have ever heard. If you are blind then you are lacking one of the 5 senses used to establish physical proof. If I were to hit you with a brick it would not hurt you then since solidity is an illusion due to the majority of empty space matter is made of..right? You would be pretending to have a sense that you could feel it..so there according to your logic it would pass harmlessly thru you
Fine Let's say I am deaf...prove to me that sound exists..see just as silly and not worthy of the type it took to put in here.

You are asking atheists to prove YOUR side of the argument...it is up to THEISTS to PROVE GOD EXISTS..it is not up to atheists to prove it for you.

And stop bad mouthing Blue..it has never asked for money..never made stupid rules for the sake of making them..encouraged people to hate, attack and kill others..never told people being as stupid as you could possibly be is the best thing to attain in life. Blue has never asked anything of us and it makes no demands..it gives unquestionly...there is more evidence of the color blue being God than your pale Christ

Answer 7

You need a better example. Colors do NOT exist... they are entirely a construct of the brain... the brain's response to a particular wavelength of electromagnetic radiation in the visible light spectrum.

Further, color is NOT an innate property of any object... it is a 'phenomenon', dependent on several things...

* The frequency spectrum of the illumination source

* The reflective spectrum of the iluminated object

* The absorption spectrum of the detection instrument (eyeball)

Change any one of those, and the 'color' changes.

Also... there is no way of knowing that the way you perceive 'blue', in your brain, is anything like the way I perceive 'blue', in my brain. The BEST we can do is arrive at a consensus... we can agree that the illusion of 'color' that is created in each of our brains upon being stimulated by a particular frequency of visible light will henceforth be called 'blue'.

Just as you have deluded yourself, via ignorance, into believing that 'blue' exists, you have also deluded yourself into thinking that an invisible, magical, supernatural sky-daddy exists.

Answer 8

Wrong argument. First, you do have people around you that you can rely on, and who know "blue" exists. Second, there IS scientific evidence that blue exists, even if not everyone can see it. Third, nobody is trying to manipulate you in the name of blue. So, I don't need to prove you blue exists, since I'm not claiming blue has special powers you have to surrender to.

Answer 9

I may not explain it to a blind person but there could be billions of people that would say it actually exists and have actually seen it - that's empirical evidence - ever heard that term?

Stop trying to use logic to prove skydaddy, it makes you look even more foolish.

Stick with the faith thing

Answer 10

I would tell them blue exist, then beg them to believe blue exist. If that didnt work I would tell all my friends that blind people are satanic because they dont believe in blue. Then at some point I would outlaw the teaching of braille at school because it corrupts non-blind students.