#obduracy

[the-lexicographer]

Word of the Day - Bonus Round

Obfirmation, n. /ob’firm-ā’shun/ - Confirming or being confirmed in evil; obduracy.

Obduracy, adj. /äb-də’rət/ - The state or quality of being obdurate; obstinacy; persistent hardness of heart.

       Source: The Oxford Universal Dictionary, 1933

[englishlistwords]

Obduracy

n. The state or quality of being intractable or hardened.

[academicatheism]

Admits to Being Obdurate

by-grace-of-god:

You may have reblogged my posts but to be frank, I either didn’t see your replies since you referred to multiple replies or the ones that I saw were tl:dr. I’m sorry if it’s rude of me to not have read them but honestly, I don’t see the point. 

Sure, two paragraphs on that C.S. Lewis tripe is TL;DR (see here). Just admit it: if the content doesn't agree with your views, it's not worth reading. It's precisely this sort of mentality that leads Christians to thinking they're correct. Like you, some of them are unwilling to read two paragraphs of opposing content. Others, unlike you, are only willing to read that which agrees with them regardless of how verbose it is. This is why there are wannabe apologists who read Plantinga and Craig, but entirely avoid Ritchie, Grayling, Parsons, Carrier, etc.

You obviously take much care in trying to refute the ‘idiocy’ of any claims by Christians and go to the trouble of supplying works cited, etc. I can see you take this quite seriously yet I know what I believe and I wasn’t enticed to read your retort. I am surprised that you would want to make that much effort in trying to prove us wrong. 

You know what you believe, but you know nothing beyond that. If you did, you would know that you're wrong. You would also know that since you're wrong, proving you wrong makes no sense. I can only demonstrate that you're wrong and that's something I can do. That's something I have done. I understand that idiots like you won't read even the most well-argued retorts, but some of your followers will. Some of your followers might dare to do what you don't do. Some of them who agree with you might dare to question their beliefs. People like you are unquestioning, obdurate bigots; furthermore, people like you have installed a failsafe--i.e. people like you have willfully decided to ignore any content that doesn't agree with your beliefs. What better way to protect your beliefs; what better way to fool yourself in to thinking you've already found the truth. Christianity isn't true. Your simpleton pro-life views are untenable. I'd rather work at the truth. I attain knowledge rather than fool myself into thinking I already have it.

As for my approach, it works. That this or that view is wrong is well-demonstrated and for them who aren't as obstinate as you are, it brings them to the realization that they're ignorant concerning given topics (e.g. ancient history; textual criticism; comparative religion; evolution; abiogenesis). Therefore, my concern isn't proving anyone wrong; reality has already buried beliefs like yours. My concern is education. Once I help in teaching someone how to think, they'll no longer allow anyone to tell them what to think. That my approach doesn't work on the bullheaded doesn't harm the efficacy of my approach. There isn't an approach on the planet capable of curing your kind of blatant, faith-based, unsubstantiated ignorance. That says more about you than it does about my approach. But TL;DR, you're not going to read this anyway.

[academicatheism]

If you read the post thoroughly you would see that I am not the author so the presumed hostility cant be attributed to me. Its funny that you blame your hostile reaction towards me on my reaction towards you when I was thinking that I would actually have seriously engaged you on the topic had you not been so disrespectful in the first place. I will probably continue to use the tag as I see fit so I suggest that you block me - publish this or not its your prerogative anyways.

It can definitely be attributed to you because your posting it implies an agreement with the sentiments expressed. It is therefore as though you said it yourself. Unless you included a disclaimer saying something along the lines of not agreeing with the sentiments expressed by the author, there’s no distinction to be made between your views and those of the author. My so called hostile reaction toward you is the same reaction I would have toward the author or anyone who agrees with the tripe the post expressed. There is no topic worth serious discussion in that post. All the post expresses are faith-based, unfounded assertions. Therefore, the serious discussion would revolve around the question of why anyone should take those beliefs and assertions seriously.

Lastly, using the tag as you see fit is the same garbage I hear from other theists who don’t consider the effects their posts may have. They don’t consider whether the post can incite anger. More importantly, they don’t consider whether atheists are already familiar with the line of thinking the post offers! Hearing the same redundant tripe gets to be extremely irritating for anyone. If there were, at least, four or five atheists equating Christians with faith-healing fundamentalists, there will be a few Christians that will constantly take exception. In fact, I’ve seen this happen! Sometimes, Christians are far more hostile. Anyone, religious or not, can grow tired of hearing the same, unsubstantiated nonsense. Just like it’s stupid for an atheist to think that all Christians are on board with faith-healing, it’s stupid for Christians to think that all atheists are fighting against god or suppressing knowledge of him in their unrighteous or in love with committing sin. Everything in that post is redundant. There’s nothing new, original, or progressive about it. It’s the same unfounded assumptions; the same circular reasoning; the same begging of the question; the same faith-based, incendiary tripe.

The best example in that post is that the author misses the point on what atheists are fighting against. The assumption that we’re somehow at war with a god we don’t believe in is plain stupid. Yet it’s an assumption we’re used to hearing. It disregards the reality of the matter in the most egregious way possible.

In any case, if you’re going to use the tag, try to be mindful of what you’re posting. Your evangelistic motives don’t matter to me because you won’t be the first that preaches on the atheism tag. I can assure you that other atheists will no doubt take exception to that. Bible verses aren’t welcome because you wouldn’t be the first to spam our tag with them. Daft posts like the one being discussed here aren’t welcome because they lack reason, they’re redundant, and they’re frustratingly annoying for a number of reasons (e.g. they devalue what we stand for; they attempt to marginalize us). C.S. Lewis quotes are best kept in your corner of the internet. The same with William Lane Craig, David Bentley Hart, and all of the goto apologists wannabe apologists like to cite. Ultimately, if you’re not offering anything new, anything of substance, anything compelling, anything capable of actually making us think, it’s best kept off our tag. Your obduracy and recalcitrance isn’t new at all. I’ve dealt with pigheaded people like you over and over and over. Eventually they force my hand and regret it. So post at your own risk. Just don’t turn around and whine when people respond to you in accordance with the measure you’ve earned.

[these--withered--machines]

garbageface//real life in submersion [obduracy, 2014] i don't know how i feel these days, which is why i haven't been writing much. there isn't much feeling other than the churning in my gut & the numb fog between my ears. i keep trying to make things but i quit because i don't have any confidence in myself, i suppose. unfinished paintings, worn down instruments with no musicality, half shot 8mm films in black and white, fragmented essays, scribbled remnants of dreams, empty walls, fata morgana. i can't even finish reading a book. my anxiety is thru the roof and i'm revolving around half-baked schemes to pay my rent so i can die in a building surrounded by cats without having to get a 'real job.' my body is failing my ambitions and i'm only 24. i ferry back and forth between here and where i grew up - i don't like either place, but i don't like any place right now so i guess it's better to be where i have someone than nothing.  i float around, clinging to or ignoring people, pushing buttons faster than some gamer gating fucks with an xbox controller (is that what people play? i've never had a game console but i once beat a fedora wearing MRA at a UFC game - i could see the tiny gears in his brain exploding with fury after every hit). it doesn't matter how hard i work, there will always be a boys club. there will always be a drunk club. there will always be a sane club. there will always be a stranger on the street wailing "nice legs! i'd like to wrap them around my head" club.  but there will also always be strays to take in. people who accept the            h o p e l e s s n e s s  and keep moving in multiple directions anyway. 

sometimes i worry that what i'm experiencing isn't ~real enough~ but then my IBS & acid reflux & fibromyalgia flare up and i wonder what living with crohn's was like in comparison. i remember that i've felt less and i've felt more so i must be here, however fleeting or grounded. "in the future there will be a service that will notify you every time a fragile person is reduced to nothing." ____________________________________________________ i wonder how mortified you were when you barged into the bathroom, demanding i exit the shower immediately so that you could take a shit. i wonder if you even cared at that point, because i didn't. i wonder if you knew i stopped caring the day i made you laugh so hard you puked a mcdonald's dollar drink all over both of us. i could see in your eyes the gleam of humiliation, but the mirth never left and i think we had an understanding that day. everything was easier because i was easy.

people say that, that i'm an easy friend. i'm a smooth person to get along with - i listen, i get it. if i don't get it, i "shut the fuck up & listen more" (step one: barrage of certainty). i listen until it's all i can hear when i try to fall asleep at night. it's the reason why i'm writing this at 5am. i find something to mull about and i listen until i can't.

i don't think i'm easier in the sense that i'm more -agreeable- but perhaps in the sense that i've seen some shit. i believe that purer things happen when you're closer to death, when you're grieving, when you're contemplating. i've seen magnificent orbs, energies, spirits, lights. street lamps have burst above me when i'm listening too closely. i've had conversations carry on spanning years, spanning levels of consciousness. i'm not scared, but the window opening up this weekend doesn't shut until november 4th, isn't sealed until the last of the snow melts and i can feel the sun again. that's a long time to be fragile. 

or maybe i'm utterly full of shit.  ______________________________________________________  here's an album that i'm heavily inspired by lately from garbageface, an artist & friend who blows me away every time he performs. one bad sunday is sobering and reminds me of benjamin enough that i cry when i hear it. and i listen closer. and i embrace my fragility in hopes that someday, someone will recognize when i've been reduced to nothing before it's announced on a touch screen. thx karol for brushing some graves off. xx