LaFemme!
Dang you struck a chord with this thread. I haven't checked back in a couple of days and just now saw your response to my post a zillion posts ago.
I was jesting when I said that religion is inherited, you get it from your parents. It was a quote that I can't find the author of for attribution.
I believe in a higher power. My higher power has some attributes that are present in every religion but not all of any. The most important attribute that it does not have is the exclusionary clause, stating that all who do not believe as I do are going to hell, therefore it is not just OK, but my duty to bring my beliefs to the unenlightened, and if necessary kill them as a way of saving them from hell, and thus conveniently removing them from the resistors to my way.
Back to the topic. AA has sound psychology with their 12 steps. Having a sponsor can be equated with confession (Which it is definitely not) which is good for the soul, and here on SR we tell our stories many times things that no one knows all of from our drinking, same catharsis, different methodology.
I think that is what people are trying to say when they say that they too thought that AA was religious or about a strict definition of a higher power after going through the 12 steps.
I have not been to every AA meeting ever held but I sincerely doubt that anybody ever actually believed in a doorknob as a higher power. <wink>