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mwengler comments on What Can We Learn About Human Psychology from Christian Apologetics? - Less Wrong
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Atoms are too small to see with visible light. Its a matter of physics, something much smaller than a wavelength of light cannot be imaged by it, the image has a resolution limit of perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 a wavelength. You can "see" them in scanning tunneling microscopes by raster scanning a surface and measuring the current flowing at each point along the raster scan. You then make a color plot with the color showing how much current is flowing at each point in the raster scan and the result is an image that LOOKS like something you could be seeing, but it is a so-called false image.
Cells with nuclei (eukaryotic) are all big enough to see with visible light. They range in size from 10 to 100 microns, the wavelength of visible light is about 0.5 microns. Yes, you have to focus the light through a magnifying glass or a microscope to see them. But do you generally think of someone wearing glasses as not seeing the things they are looking at because the light is focused through a lens?
I think if you are going to be successfully pedantic you require a hire level of accuracy.
It is not very useful to discriminate between "seeing with your eyes" and "seeing with the aid of scientific instruments". Vast amounts of information processing occurs between light landing on your retina and an image forming in your brain, so if you are happy to call looking through glasses, or a microscope, or a telescope, "seeing with your eyes" then I see no reason to make a distinction when the information-carrying particle switches from photons to electrons. Especially since we mostly use digital microscopes etc. these days.
Sure and most of the stories I hear I actually read printed words off a page. Somehow, I'd like people describing things to me to not worry so much about what is more important as much as I'd like them to worry about whether what they are saying is accurate. Even if a distinction is claimed to be not important by the teller, they can still stick to accurate descriptions. And sometimes, you know, people disagree about what is and isn't important, and accuracy allows them to still communicate in a productive way.
You may argue that it is not useful, but it is still natural.