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Atheists/Agnostics what is your higher power?

Old 03-06-2015, 05:20 PM
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Sometimes I groove on the HP is a doorknob idea. I mean, what the freakin' hell makes the doorknob such a reliable piece of simple machinery? Why do its little molecules & atoms and subatomic parts all congeal so nicely & persistently into something so hard, so pliant, so useful, so unobtrusive, so persuasively metaphorical? What wonderful power greater than myself keeps the material world ticking along, instead of...



It's certainly more than I can say or know.
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Old 03-06-2015, 05:36 PM
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Originally Posted by sleepie View Post
Hello all.

I am wondering about the higher power concept for those of us who are atheist or agnostic.

I was told once that it doesn't matter what your higher power is. That it could be a chair.

This is above my head.

What's the purpose?

How did that work for you?
It didn't. People don't seem to understand that for me there is no higher power than your conscious brain. A chair? That is asinine and if anyone said that in a meeting I'd walk out.

The human language cannot even begin to describe the world of physics and mathematics when it comes to The Big Question. The likelihood of a theistic God is on par with the idea that our entire universe is but just one particle inside someone else's particle accelerator.

Personally for me, if I had no control I would have smashed my car into a telephone pole with my son in the back seat 2 years ago. 12 pack in the passenger seat, of course.
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Old 03-06-2015, 07:31 PM
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Originally Posted by H2SO4 View Post
The likelihood of a theistic God
I'm an atheist, meaning I believe there are no gods, and I'm a statistician. As for likelihoods, odds are a funny thing. The likelihood of something happening may be almost infinitely small, but if it happens, it happens just as surely as if it were very very likely.
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Old 03-06-2015, 08:15 PM
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That which is good, that which is right, and that which is natural.

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Old 03-06-2015, 08:27 PM
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Originally Posted by courage2 View Post
I'm an atheist, meaning I believe there are no gods, and I'm a statistician. As for likelihoods, odds are a funny thing. The likelihood of something happening may be almost infinitely small, but if it happens, it happens just as surely as if it were very very likely.
Agreed.
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Old 03-07-2015, 08:39 PM
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I'm a nothing, one day I think atheist, the next agnostic, the next that those words are too much commitment to anything. I am a secular humanist so the connection with people is my HP, oddly enough I'm shy and timid so... It's something to work on.
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Old 03-07-2015, 10:38 PM
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We've all read those articles that say that we use only 10% (or whatever) of our available brain capacity, right?

And we've also all heard that old AA saying that goes, "My best thinking is what got me here," right?

Well, I prefer to think that it was my worst thinking that got me to where I ended up as an alcoholic, and that I’m capable of better.

My "higher power" is my unused potential, the part of "me" that is as yet untapped, unplumbed, unimagined. My mission in recovery is to discover and empower that better "me" so that the old, drunk "me" becomes irrelevant — and stays that way.

Or, to put it more prosaically, I must strive consistently to establish and reinforce new neural pathways that override the old ones which led directly to drink.

I like this approach because it doesn’t require belief in a supernatural deity or indeed in any external force whatsoever.

It can also work for followers of the AA program because it’s right there in the Big Book: "With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource..." (Appendix II, pp. 567-568).
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Old 03-07-2015, 10:42 PM
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I must strive consistently to establish and reinforce new neural pathways that override the old ones which led directly to drink.
Do you do this by meditation?
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Old 03-08-2015, 05:39 AM
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Truly the biggest power that did influence my decision and drives my continued resolve to improve is TIME. I don't have one more second to give to alcohol, weed or any of the other "fun, leisurely" things I filled my time with. Like having dessert all the time...just stupid.
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Old 03-08-2015, 06:26 AM
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Agnostic borderline atheist but sober for 14 years, and found the miracle of serenity (which is the absence of being punched, arrested, etc.).

Higher Power is Not Me. That's as far as I've had to go.

I never had to define a power greater than myself, just acknowledge that it exists, and it's Not Me.

I didn't make the sun come up ... I don't know who did but it was coming up long before I was born, it will come up long after I die and I can do nothing to affect it.
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Old 03-08-2015, 06:46 AM
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Originally Posted by ru12 View Post
I don't have one. I got myself drunk and I got myself sober.
I attended one AA meeting and I couldn't wait for it to be over! What a load of crap. Really! But whatever floats yoyr boat I'd say. I do not believe in God or a higher power that can take away my alcohol dependency except myself. I got myself in this trouble I got myself out of it now I have to make sure it stays like this. Only I can do it nothing else but me.
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Old 03-08-2015, 06:59 AM
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Originally Posted by Andante View Post
Or, to put it more prosaically, I must strive consistently to establish and reinforce new neural pathways that override the old ones which led directly to drink.
IMO that describes what a Spiritual Awakening is - "new neural pathways that override the old ones".
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Old 03-08-2015, 08:48 AM
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I was at a meeting this morning and old friend shared something she was told years ago. "Never be afraid of your spiritual path". When I'm okay with my path I'm ok with yours.

I have no understanding of what a god is. I know it ain't me. I'm a bag of meat (one of several billion) on a tiny rock flying through a universe that is beyond my comprehension.

My higher power is what the Buddhists call Metta - loving kindness and compassion. It's as simple as that. I have a Christian friend who says God is love. To quote a Bob Dylan lyric, "we always did feel the same we just saw it from a different point of view". Cheers.

-allan
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Old 03-08-2015, 09:36 AM
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Thanks everyone I really value your input here.
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Old 03-08-2015, 09:56 AM
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Originally Posted by Andante View Post
]And we've also all heard that old AA saying that goes, "My best thinking is what got me here," right?

Well, I prefer to think that it was my worst thinking that got me to where I ended up as an alcoholic, and that I’m capable of better.
Exactly! Of all the AA platitudes, that is one of the worst. My worst thinking or lack of thinking got me there, and better and better thinking helped pull me out. Don't leave your brain at the door, use it.
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Old 03-08-2015, 10:04 AM
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I'm not an active member of AA but I do benefit from getting inspiration from things and concepts that are "beyond me" as an individual, both in my recovery and in my everyday life in general. I've never been able to use esoteric powers much in my thinking and as guidance, even though I tend to be interested in such things out of curiosity about the unknown. I'm not an atheist either, more the textbook agnostic.

I'm also someone who can draw a lot of useful wisdom and guidance from Buddhism, and in the context of this discussion, I tend to benefit from what is known as the theory of Karma in Buddhism. Universal law of cause and effect, action-reaction, basically that we do not exist as disconnected, isolated beings, but everything in nature is interconnected, events influence each-other often even when we do not directly see it. So my decisions, what I do and the way I live are continuously influenced by other people and my environment, and I also influence these with my actions. I cannot see anything in nature as isolated component, it's more a giant karmic network of inter-dependence.

If you want something similar from science, I'm very much a fan of Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect, which describe somewhat similar things as natural phenomena.

In terms a good way of being and ethical framework, I very much like the Noble Eightfold Path from Buddhism, again.
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Old 03-08-2015, 04:46 PM
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Nature. The whole of the natural, living world, and it's interconnectedness. I draw incredible strength from a walk in nature, or a scenic view, and always have.
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Old 03-09-2015, 03:19 AM
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Originally Posted by JeffreyAK View Post
Exactly! Of all the AA platitudes, that is one of the worst. My worst thinking or lack of thinking got me there, and better and better thinking helped pull me out. Don't leave your brain at the door, use it.
I always thought that was said tongue in cheek because it is usually followed by how the sharer had to learn a new way of life and to do it with people who were already thinking better... At least that is how I've always taken it.
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Old 03-09-2015, 05:52 AM
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I only answer to my higher power. He holds all the cards. He has all the power.
My HP is the man in the mirror.
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Old 03-09-2015, 11:50 AM
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Sometimes I groove on the HP is a doorknob idea.
That's fine. For years my higher power was a tree. The thing about prayer, is it always works when I also put action into it. For example, I need a new job: prayer then I start looking. If I skip the prayer part, looking for a job is much tougher.
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