Toto

Idiom - Now you concentrate on that Bible verse. It said that "the god of this world" had blinded the minds of unbelievers.

Who is the god of this world? Why are unbelievers blind?

Why do you think an analogy proves anything?

Could it be that people who see things that are not there are accusing others of being blind?

seebs

Yes. The blind man can feel the sunlight as heat.

CALDONIA

I think the comparison of a physically blind person and a skeptically blind person (the implication here is blind by choice)is incoherent.

seebs

It would be if skepticism were entirely similar to being "blind by choice". I'm moderately skeptical; if someone shows me a new thing, I don't automatically believe it, anyway. I don't see anything "blind" about not accepting everything you're told about without question. The question is one of how you draw the line; the idea is to get a good clear picture, and to neither overexpose nor underexpose.

idiom

ha ha funny thought.

The blind man can feel the sun as heat right...

Maybe the blind skeptic will feel God as heat (read hellfire)


BTW I never said the analogy proved anything I just said that it readily provided the biblical viewpoint.

Gregg

A blind man gets many concrete benefits from sunlight In addition to warming him and providing Vitamin C, sunlight causes ocean water to evaporate and fall as rain, giving him something to drink and helping his vegetable garden grow. And of course, the sunlight gives food to plants directly via the process of photosynthesis. Convincing a rational blind man that sunlight exists, that the light and heat that causes ocean water to evaporate isn't man-made, that all the rain in a rainstorm doesn't come from sprinklers, and that his vegetable garden isn't housed in a greenhouse with artificial lighting, shouldn't be too much trouble.

A skeptic would simply look for these same concrete, consistent, predictable benefits from a god. Does believing in the god always bring people the exact same, measurable, quantifiable benefits? For example, do all people who believe in the god get a sense of deep peace, meaning, and purpose? Do all people who pray to the god get their prayers answered in a consistent (and suitably miraculous) fashion? Does the god regularly perform miracles that can be observed by all, such as speaking out of whirlwinds or pillars of fire, parting seas, making smooth the flesh of lepers, healing the lame (and the blind), changing water into wine, multiplying loaves and fishes, etc.?

The truth, of course, is that the "benefits" people get from their gods are nowhere near as concrete, observable, and ubiquitous as the benefits they get from sunlight.

You believe in something so strongly that you can feel its presence, and this gives joy, meaning, and purpose to your life. Someone else tries to believe what you do, and they don't get the same results, or they get the results temporarily, but then after a while they find it difficult to sustain their belief and the feelings fade. But the sun always rises the next day, and it shines on everyone, and gives everyone the exact same benefit (life), no matter what they believe or how they pray. So, doesn't believing in the sun make more sense?

Gregg

Synaesthesia

A camera can be used to translate visible EM radiation into a matrix of electrodes hooked up to the blind man's tongue. With some training, the visual areas of the brain begin to interpret the shape information thus allowing the blind person to use the information in electromagnetic radiation.

The skeptic can take LSD to convince himself that massive delusions are indeed possible.