Atheists: How do you prove to a blind man that stars exist?

Same way you prove to a crook that honesty exists. You can't.

check mate.

-atheist

I won't go into the thousands of possible experimental designs here because the space limitations. But generally tell the blind person to use the "scientific method" because it provides evidence for the unobservable via inference. Start with the hypothesis, "stars exist." Deduce predictions derived from the hypothesis. Test these predictions through gathering evidence: for example, test sighted people on their ability to observe stars and have the results independently verified by other sight impaired folk. Design experiments that employ multiple disciplines and look for converging evidence. Most importantly, look for evidence that would falsify the hypothesis. After sufficient evidence has been amassed, infer whether the hypothesis is either "true" or "false." Remembering that all scientific theories are tentative, so if at some future date, verifiable evidence surfaces that counters this conclusion, abandon it or modify itn favor of the newly acquired evidence. For example, if you find evidence to indicate that the "points of light" people called "stars" are actually far away suns, alter the theory from "stars exist" to "stars exist and they are far away suns."

Generic god claims differ from science in that they are unfalsifiable. No test can be devised to disprove the god hypothesis. Specific god claims where the god interacts with reality, however, are subject to scientific inquiry. The faithful would not require "religious faith" if god claims could be subject to proof.

You are using that word "proof " as in proving God exists.

The blind man sees can't see stars and Christians can't see God.

Do either of them exist?

Perhaps because it deals with the physical universe, the world that we know is real, it is much easier to accept what someone tells you as being true. It is not presented with a mystical element like religion and there are not competing stories as to what is true. Although the sky can be a breathtaking sight, it is simply a part of the real world, the same as everything else that blind people must accept on faith.

There are ways to prove what exists to anyone if they are willing to accept reality. There is no way to prove anything to a person who is determined to deny reality.

I don't care what fantasy nonsense anyone else wants to believe. I just don't want superstition and stupidity to be in charge.

Mankind has worked-slaved-to rise out of ignorance, tribal conflict and fear for millenia. But mankind has not been able to shed superstition. Religion, all religion(s) is superstition.

So I challenge you to prove that this "God" exists.

Simple.

Pray to God to step in to allow the blind man to gain sight so that he can see for himself. If God doesn't step in, ... too bad. Maybe he didn't want that blind man to see. Or maybe there IS no God to accomplish that miracle. Either way, blame the difficulty on God.

Now I think I've got YOU on that one.

So seeing is believing? Well what if I told you that many of the stars you "see" now in the night sky ceased to exist hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Let him outside so he can feel the warmth of the sun?

and stop claiming you have some sort of "sixth sense" when it comes to gods that atheists don't possess. Many of us (including myself) used to be Christian.

We can do everything we can to provide him with scientific evidence that the stars exist.

We can try to paint a picture in his mind (hypothetically speaking).

In the end, he draws his own conclusion.

Science?