Originally Posted by Five
I'l bite on this and come back. If AA does not require any religous beliefs, how come you have to believe in a God that has a will, that removes defects of character, who you pray to, who you have to be humble to, who you have to get honest to.
A door knob cannot do them things.
"the athiest of savage mind".
okay 5, this is how I deal with all those things
God's will- for me this means getting rid of self will, I try to look at a situation and what ever is best for all people involved, regardless of my own interests is "god's will"
Defects of character- "god" doesn't remove defects of character, but the the 6th step says we became entirely ready for "god" to remove these defects of character, which means that our defects become visible to us....through meditation and journaling, a defect is a patern of behavior. the next sted talks about asking to have our "shortcomming" removed, which is about growing enough personally to not have to act out on our usual paterns of behavior (the acting out on a defect of character is the definition of a short comming). Through mediation, writing and discussion with our sponsor, we learn to act correctly in situations and try to do "god's will" instead of reacting and living in self. All the actions of these 2 steps come from individual participation and self searching.
Praying- I am not religious, like I said. So when I "pray" it is more of a way to get intouch with my conscience and is about settleing my mind and resembles meditation more than religious prayer.
Getting humble- I get humble not to impress a diety, I get humble because there is a lesson in it. Humility ******* my ego and puts me back into check. I get humble for the benifit of blake, not "god". "get humble or get humiliated" is a maxim I have found to be true in a lot of situation.
Honesty- If you did believe in a god that was omniscient, what would be the need to get honest with it, it already knows everything. The honesty called for in the program is for individual growth, I have to get honest with myself and get honest with the people I trust. Lying is like a wildfire, If I stat being dishonest with people, it spreads and grows and sooner or later I start lying to myself till I start believing "I can go just have one bag of dope, I can handle it" and I end up strung out again.
these are all just the ways I have grown in my program to be able to work it with out religious belief.....just my opinion.