Originally Posted by
Anodyne 
That's one I've heard, and wondered about myself a bit..hence working the steps, the "If I am powerless, how does that lead me to not take the first drink?
It doesn't. Powerlessness doesn't lead me to not take the first drink. It just defines it. I can't NOT drink. Powerless not to.
Powerlessness leads me to a dead end contained in the last paragraph on page 25. "If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help."
It's a dead end, binary system. Only two alternatives. Keep going on like you're going, or accept spiritual help.
The motivation for making that choice comes only because I've come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as I'd been living it (earlier on pg 25). And I'm willing to accept spiritual help because I saw that it really worked in others. Only then will I do the self searching, leveling of pride, and confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation.
And it doesn't matter whether its a Christian God, pagan god, or some fuzzy ill defined 'power'. Doing those things that almost none of us likes will get you in touch with that power.