Toronto68

Supercrew, my answer is pretty short, because I don't think I have a religion, per the definitions you used as an intro to your question. So neither the religion I was exposed to in my youth nor a newly discovered one has had anything to do with how I am doing as an alcoholic no longer drinking. That's the way it is now. (For background, I dropped out of the Roman Catholic Church in early adulthood. Not that unusual, but you don't hear about us all the time: I was a late bloomer to it. I wasn't raised with it, I started going in my teens, and had been raised "generic" before that, because my parents stopped attending for a while. Whatever I knew about Christianity was from public school in Canada back then and TV, etc.)

When it comes to faith and personal beliefs, well, I am really not committed there either. In past comments left here, between 6 and 10 months ago, I said I was starting to become a believer of some kind. I didn't pretend I had a clear idea of what the belief 9the God) was; I just thought I was returning to a belief in something. I'm not "embarrassed" for those comments now, but the reality is that I don't think in quite the same passionate way anymore about all that. There isn't a huge tempest of anger or resentment leading me to lean deeper into atheism again, but I just don't know. Once in a while I still try to tap into a connection with God, but I think I am faking it just to make myself feel better.

Maybe I can benefit from the question you put here too.

yeahgr8

I'm Church of England apparently:-) Did the Sunday school and all that jazz at school...

Got an A at A-level Divinity (religious studies) then ironically found out, in recovery, that all the stuff i had learned and been told was not actually what was said or happened...i guess every religion has their spin on things and people can interpret whatever they want to from any literature?

How has religion helped with my recovery...not in the slightest! Spirituality features extremely high on the priority list though...i thought spirituality was religion, another myth busted;-)

getr345

Went in to recovery with utter contempt for religion and an apathetic misunderstanding of spirituality.

Today, I no longer have such contempt for religion and I have had a true spiritual awakening in my life which I am actually very grateful for because it has opened my eyes, my heart, and my mind to new ways of thinking and feeling.

EmeraldRose

IMHO...spirituality doesn't have to have anything to do with religion -if you don't want it to. I feel that my spirituality is my inner strength, my being, my energy, my compassion, my thought process of understanding how my mind and soul are perceiving life. Energy creates energy...hence, neutron dance. When energy ceases our own energy hibernates....thinking and being helps create this energy to conform in our lives.
I have not prayed for my recovery. I've tried to heighten my own thoughts and energy to to be positive, willing, optimistic, excpecting success, expecting to overcome this, expecting my positivity to be persued thru my thoughts and actions.

I went to Sunday School. I believed in christmas, easter, etc -but looking into other religous traditions it is interesting to see how others' incorporate the different origins of symbols, etc. Just saying.

Some people 'need' a god to fall back on just for the simple reason that its easier to blame someone or something else than it is to hold yourself accountable for your own actions. As we know, that is the wrong reason. Not religion.

Peoples' thoughts and spiritual levels change. That is part of your life learning process...I might totally dissagree with myself in 6 months but this is where I need to be right now.

AmericanGirl

How has religion affected my recovery? A good question, worth thinking about.

Depending on semantics, people would call me agnostic, atheist, or I could also be called a secular humanist. I do not believe there is testable evidence that there is an organized, omnipotent guiding force that determines what happens to human beings (and by extension, that can be influenced by us). And I hate to be a downer, but when I look at history, the holocaust, natural disasters, I'm even more doubtful.

I have no doubt that prayer and meditation can be powerful for individuals, though. For me, thinking about what I'm grateful for, or what I deeply hope for for myself or others, or spending some time to empty my mind and concentrate just on existing can help me channel my energies and focus in a positive way and is a humbling process. So, those things have been a powerful part of my recovery. Some would call them "Spiritual."

I've also become a lot more open-minded in recovery and I think that's important too. I think we all agree that organized religion can, in some circumstances, be very dangerous. I used to judge it a lot. Now, I'm more likely to step back and see a spectrum. It's not black or white. Also, I understand faith better now. I would never say absolutely that there is no God. I now know that many people who believe in God are speaking from a place of faith.

Kjell

The spirituality I get in AA is incredible.

I'm Catholic, but before AA, my relationship with God was pathetic.

Now it's simply....amazing and infinite. My spirituality grows and so does my God.

Kjell

Zencat

My past religious upbringing in the Southern Baptist Church had a huge impact on my early days of recovery. In early adulthood I resented how religion was taught to me. The church used scare tactics to convert me to Christianity. As I was able to leave the church I not only abandoned the church I rejected God and every possible manifestation of God.

So then when I first entered recovery I was eventually given a BB. As I read it I was alarmed. All the references to God/HP had taken me back to my childhood and the angry God of my youth. I had a hard time seeing past my anger against religion. To me anything resembling God was something that I ever wanted to know about again. But the idea of having a HP of my own understanding interest me.

For a long time I wanted to explore Buddhism. Recovery seemed like the place to do that. I went to the library and looked up some Buddhist stuff. I also came across atheist literature, learned about mythology and discovered secularism. I found my HP, so long that it remained secular in nature. That understanding I could work with.

Eventual I could feel connected to the world around me as with my inner-self. I call myself a secular spiritual person. I have a reverence for nature and feel a great wonder for the universe. I preference the word spiritual with secular because I have no need for supernatural beliefs. I like to use a scientific understand of the world around me. Although in the scientific world there are a lot of unknowns. I can work around that because I love a good mystery.

spqr

I can't stand religion. Nothing about recovery has changed that.

DrunkenBasement

I also like the concept of the trinity and if anyone is interested in reading something profound and unusual, I recommend The Shack by William P. Young.

I was raised Catholic, dragged to church every Sunday and one more time during the week when school was in session. Catholic all-girls high school also. It's not that I didn't believe -- I did, or at least I wanted to, but it just was not presented to me in a way that I could latch on to. Everyone in my family goes to church regularly and I never completely dismissed religion, but when I got my driver's license, I quit going to church, much to the chagrin of my mother, who now at 16 years later still wishes I'd go back.

Anyway, they all went and I just didn't get anything out of it. To digress just a bit: I actually had a boyfriend ask me to move out after being together for over 6 years and living together for two because he was going to church and the pastor kept saying things about people living in sin. I moved out and that was that.

When it was time for me to get sober, I felt like God was speaking to me in a way that I could finally understand and relate to. I had to accept God into my life if I wanted to keep myself alive. I honestly believe I had no other choice. It was the last thing I could do. I had to be ready. It was either toss everything else out the window and accept God and have him show me the way, or die a drunk. I chose to accept God and he keeps revealing himself to me in ways that make 99% sense to me.... I say 99% because that last 1% represents the mystery that keeps me believing and guessing and being patient. Faith and mystery that keeps me moving forward. More will be revealed.

And to my mother: I DO go to church sometimes on Sundays, but you'd never see me because it's in the evening, and technically it is not even in the church, it's in the church basement. I've gotten more out of the handful of times I have spent Sunday nights in that church basement than 16 years of once or twice a week upstairs.

Hmmmm.... I seem to mention basements a lot.

LaFemme

Hey DB...I was just going to suggest the Shack because reading Boleo's post made me think of it

I liked the rest of your post as well.

I love the mystery and the unknown of religion but I get that others don't. I'm also pretty comfortable with the idea that there are things in general that we aren't going to know the answer to in life. What's that Shakespear wrote...?

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Damn, he wrote some pretty cool stuff! Might need to revisit his writings

DrunkenBasement

And now for a poem that I think sums up my feelings AND accompanies my new avatar!!! I love its simplicity and honesty.

A Cowboy's Prayer
(Written for Mother)
by Badger Clark

Oh Lord, I've never lived where churches
grow.
I love creation better as it stood
That day You finished it so long ago
And looked upon Your work and called it
good.
I know that others find You in the light
That's sifted down through tinted window
panes,
And yet I seem to feel You near tonight
In this dim, quiet starlight on the plains.
I thank You, Lord, that I am placed so well,
That You have made my freedom so com-
plete;
That I'm no slave of whistle, clock or bell,
Nor weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street.
Just let me live my life as I've begun
And give me work that's open to the sky;
Make me a pardner of the wind and sun,
And I won't ask a life that's soft or high.
Let me be easy on the man that's down;
Let me be square and generous with all.
I'm careless sometimes, Lord, when I'm in
town,
But never let 'em say I'm mean or small!
Make me as big and open as the plains,
As honest as the hawse between my knees,
Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains,
Free as the hawk that circles down the
breeze!
Forgive me, Lord, if sometimes I forget.
You know about the reasons that are hid.
You understand the things that gall and fret;
You know me better than my mother did.
Just keep an eye on all that's done and said
And right me, sometimes, when I turn
aside,
And guide me on the long, dim, trail ahead
That stretches upward toward the Great
Divide.

ste

In the book I mentioned "Crack in the Cosmic Egg" the author also postulated someday there will be "the science of everything". Religion and science will merge into one.

I think not in this lifetime, we will still have our mystery.

jamdls

I was raised a Catholic including schooling through the 10th grade but I gave up on Catholicism as a young adult and over the yrs have joined numerous other Christian churches and although they all "fit" for a while I eventually accepted that organized religion really isn't for me. My belief in God has never faultered though I certainly did not lead a life of a "good Christian". My faith played a huge role in my recovery as I don't believe I would have survived w/o divine intervention. My "big book" during the first year or 2 of sobriety was the bible, I read it cover to cover and decided that although I was not a church going person I wanted to live a life guided by the principles held in that book. I thank God every day for giving me this 2nd (3rd, 4th,...) chance at life and I intend to do right by this gift and give thanks every day.

pascal

I love Jesus. He is the center for my recovery. I find the Bible very inspirational and helpful.