navysteve

Welcome back and please keep sharing. AA has no monopoly on getting sober. We have a way that works for us. To belong to the fellowship you don't have to believe in anything. To practice the steps as outlined in the Big Book:

I am not trying to push God on you. I am just being honest. To be in the fellowship you do not have to buy into anything, if you want what the AA program has ( there is a difference between the fellowship and the program), then finding a higher power that makes sense to you is one of the things you have to do. I agree with you that God did not make me an alcoholic either, in my case, only he could remove the obsession to drink through the 12 steps as outlined in the Big Book. If that doesn't appeal to you there are many who take what they want and leave the rest. It works for them. I have known Agnsotics and athiests who did work the AA program and found no conflict at all. A friend of mine used to say that the concept of truth was his higher power. Every day he made an attempt to turn his life over to this ideal, he meditated upon it, I thought he was quite a spiritual man. If you didn't know he was an athiests you would have thought he was a God man in AA by the way he shared. Long story short, AA is pretty open to all, I hope you can find a way to be open to it.

pappabumpy

Stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that He does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him. The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.

pappabumpy

Lack of power, that was our dilemma. we had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power?

its in the book ......work o spirituallity and the rest will come...

sugarbear1

I worked those steps without a belief. I did have a willingness to believe, but I was still quite skeptical.

Those steps saved my life.

muvinon

When I arrived at the door of the program, I was agnostic. I had no feelings against the idea of God. I just couldn't see what that notion had to do with my problems.

I was extremely attracted, however, to the honesty I heard. I felt better everytime I went.

And I came to believe in a power greater than myself. Slowly, that idea of God has changed within me. MOST of us have grown to understand life from a spiritual perspective in a slow manner.

So, my suggestion is to trust that attraction you are sensing. Keep coming back.

badger1

My 2 cents.

I am an Agnostic and my sponsor (12 years sober) is a humanist. He said to me at the beginning, "What is important is not your concept of the higher power. What is important is to finally admit that you are not in control of your life, something/someone else is. Accepting that will lead you to a concept of a higher power that will work for you. But the first step is the acknowledgement that whatever the HP is, IT IS NOT YOU."

Johnston

^^^ @badger, I like that perspective

mfanch

+1

HP= not me

When I tell my story, I start by saying, "Thanks to AA and a higher power I call "not me", I am sober today...."

Even after 4 years. It's just "not me". I don't complicate it by making it "be" something. I just know now what it ISN'T.

pappabumpy

pretty much reads out the same ...just spelled different ...
all good information with good intent(unselfish)
more than 1 way to get to the same destination (journeys vary)....what 1 tags something with is not the important factor or denominator ...its what gives 1 purpose living a contented sober life .... many respects

soberhal9

ForeverDecember I have been in AA for a while now. And There are atheists, christians, people who believe in God, The universal consciousness, buddhist, judaism, muslim, all types of different walks of life. There was only one time somebody pushed God on me, I did not like it. And there are members that say I trust God with all my heart, then they say if you don't believe in God, that's fine this is just my belief.

Praying is not only a religious practice, iit's a spiritual practice too. You can pray to the great mystery in the sky.

once you work the steps you will get connected to a hp.

paulokes

ForeverDecember, I suspect folks here are a lot less likely to reject you than you think they are. I'm sure your past behaviour here wasn't as bad as you think it was.

You talk about cringing at how you've been, thinking that others will be offended or feel betrayed, that I can relate to. Hated myself so bad I couldn't imagine anyone wanting me around. If they did it would only be out of pity, right?

Today, I am comfortable in my own skin, in most ways. I can look people in the eye, don't shudder whenever I remember 'that thing' that I did 10 years ago or the stupid sh*t that came out of my mouth last time I saw this person or that person. I'm not afraid people will find out who I really am because the me I am today is pretty OK...most of the time

Nobody in AA told me to believe anything, and they certainly didn't reject me for not agreeing with them. They told me I wasn't a bad person trying to get good, I was a sick person trying to get well. I think I understand that today.

If you're tired of being who you were, AA might be the place for you. Keep up the honesty, respect to you

P

Mountainmanbob

there are many in the AA Program that have not a clue

as to what or who their Higher Power may be

there is such a mix of beliefs in AA

that not only you but all should be fine there (welcomed)

MM

tomsteve

I believe it was father martins 1st visit with bill w, when bill as struggling with his own perception of God, that father martin said something to the effect:" we will never fully understand God, for to fully understand and comprehend God would mean we are equal to God."
I did that.
then I got sober.

Lifewillgetbet

I didnt read all the comments however some people consider the AA meetings there Higher Power. Higher power can be anything really.

grtgrandpa

the only requirement for membership is a desire not to drink

simple requirement for complicated people

grtgrandpa

god is often referred to as a (group of drunks)

GracieLou

As the once pessimistic and negative alcoholic, I had no trouble believing in bad or evil. That was an easy place to visit. I was there more often than not.

So, if I could believe in one, I sorta had to believe in the other. Good and evil qualify each other. Neither would exist without the other. Ying and Yang.

So I started to not so much believe but look towards the good. To glance at it once in a while. When I did that things started to happen. People and events were placed in my path to the point that I could no longer excuse them as a coincidence.

Something is walking with me. God? Aliens? Mother Earth? Fairy God mother?

I don't know and to be honest, I do not have to know. I only know it is there and as long as I keep reaching out and accept the gifts and the people I have been given, everything is going to be okay.

I think the hardest part is when I am given gifts or people that I did not want. This is me trying to force my will. I am trying to control the outcome. I have to accept and be thankful for all gifts, because they are gifts, even if I can't quite figure them out at the moment so I must have faith in the meantime that whatever it is that walks with me has a greater plan for me.

I know without a doubt the plan I had for myself did not have a very good outcome so today I let him decide. Whatever will be, will be. His will, not mine.

KateL

I went in the beginning and it certainly gave me a kick start.

Johnston

I found AA helpful for getting sober early on too. Now I primarily use this website for maintaining abs.

Music

When I first came to AA, I flip flopped between being agnostic and atheist. I think the atheist side was more about how much I could **** somebody off. The agnostic side was more real because as hard as I tried to be my own god, I was really doing a bad job of it and there were also times when things would happen that I just couldn't explain and it seemed like God just HAD to have been trying to get a message to me.

I gave the higher power thing a try mainly because in the Big Book it talks about the number of people who really do believe in God, even though they may not refer to Him as God, and poses the question, "am I the only one who has the true answer?" Kind of like, am I the only person in the world who's really in step with reality? Then one day I thought, if there isn't a God, I'm doomed to relying on human beings like myself to call the shots and I instantly knew if that was the case, I was definately in trouble. Even today, I just look around at how people are making decisions, some very important decisions and what a mess these decisions are causing. I know I made the right choice by turning my will and life over to the care of God, not as I understand Him but as I accept Him. I can't prove the existance of God, but I surely believe there's a God. Not only do I believe, I have faith that God can do what he promises and the most important thing is I TRUST Him to do what He says He will do. I wish I could say I have an unfailing, continuous consciousness of God's pressence but I don't. I'm still human and get distracted, but when I'm in doubt, I try to pay attention to that small voice whispering to me, guiding me in the right direction.

Funny how a thread started in 2009, pops up four years later. Wonder if God has something to do with it.