Another interesting passage:
We can ultimately enjoy lasting, whole scale changes in our personalities through seemingly small, incremental changes in behavior. Every time we experience a desire to drink and, instead, go to an AA meeting, call a friend or work with a newcomer, we weaken that demon and strengthen that angel. We do the next right thing and, at some point, we realize that all these slow incremental steps have produced a significant, ‘miraculous’ transformation. Our brain is literally being rewired, slowly but surely reprogrammed.
The AA tradition is to call this kind of change ‘spiritual’ for two reasons. First, because of tradition. This sort of personal transformation, prior to the last couple hundred years of human history at least, was generally considered the sole province of religion, the handiwork of angels and deities. We find the radical change inexplicable, so we apply the magic, one-size-fits-all explaining power of theism as a metaphysical caulk in order to satisfy the never ending human thirst for understanding.