The guy who started AA didn't believe that the action / steps (of the time) would work and was vehemently anti God and such.
It's all in the book.
The weird thing about sitting in an AA meeting, wondering if the program will work is......... If it didn't, there would be no AA meetings to sit at in the first place.
Take the action and then decide, otherwise it's just a mental / intellectual exercise.
Normally not an exercise that provides any results either.
Like a dog chasing it's tail.