zerothehero

I'm a nontheist, meaning the question of God is irrelevant. I've decided my Higher Power is simply Time. I needed to stay clean and sober long enough for my brain to heal. I found meetings triggering; they made me want to get drunk. So, I basically did the 12 Steps on my own. Almost three years sober now. Meditation helps.

Carpathia

Congratulations on your time. Have you come to know serenity and peace?

I too have almost three years of sobriety. I'm following a different path than yours as I believe there is a universal force beyond the experience of the known. But I, and perhaps you as well, must contend with the known. And the known which is inside me oftentimes is fear.

Meditation helps.

zerothehero

Yes, my haiku-writing friend, meditation indeed helps. Congrats to you, as well. Serenity and peace come and go, but while they were once rare glimpses, they are increasingly frequent and longer lasting. It will take much practice and perhaps years to fully correct the decades of self-medicating, anger, resentments, anxiety, and self-loathing generated in the turmoil of childhood trauma and years of poor choices, but I am more open and aware than I've been since I can remember. If Time is not enough, perhaps my other Higher Powers are Wisdom and Practice. I was becoming a pathetic old man, but I am getting closer to being the wise old man I've long hoped I would eventually become. But I'm also a bonehead and a bit of a charlatan. A man's gotta have fun, no?

graced333

Hi - not sure where to post this - but here goes:
Whatever happens to you, don't fall in despair. Even if all the doors are closed, a secret path will be there for you that no one knows. You can't see it yet but so many paradises are at the end of the path. Be grateful! it is easy to thank after obtaining what you want, thank before having what you want.
Shams Tabrizi
I read this today while I was feeling really sad about my past behaviors. It helped me get out of my funk. Thanks for listening.

ByHisLove

I'm newly in recovery and I'm just looking for information on different perspectives. Your post stood out to me, because for the last couple of days for some reason I've been contemplating how to overcome the hell that is addiction without God. How do you look at matters of morality without God? Where does the morality come from? I would love to understand different perspectives of this struggle. I want to know how to understand where people of all beliefs are coming from I'm the fight to break free from addiction. I hope you don't take my question offensively I'm truly just curious.

zerothehero

The Buddha was a nontheist, and I find his morality refreshing and reasonable. The 4 Noble Truths also speak directly to any addict: The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism

The Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path to Enlightenment

zerothehero

In addition to the reference to the 8 Fold Path, above, I thought I would add this:

I don't believe people need God or a book attributed to God to know the difference between right and wrong. The Golden Rule doesn't require a God to tell us it is golden. When compassion leads us we seek not only to minimize harm to others, but to maximize our ability to help others. It doesn't have to be complicated. Selfishness and confusion get in the way. Sobriety assists with clarity.

Mentium

I've waded through quite a lot of this thread, but not all of it, so excuse me if I am repeating anything or going over the same ground.

I am an atheist - a reformed 'searcher' who was a Christian as a young man, a Buddhist of some sort later and then a sort of deist of another sort! I finally got off the fence after reading a few of the 'new atheist' books around the time The God Delusion and Got is Not Great came out.

I struggled with AA when I attended meetings about three years ago. I stayed sober for a year or so, left AA, heavily suspicious and unable to get past the god thing (that was my excuse anyway) and started to drink shortly after again (of course!). That was not the first time either. In short AA has kept me off alcohol for longer periods than anything else.

I returned on this occasion - just a few weeks ago - because I had decided that for me the power of AA was in the group support. I also held firmly onto the fact that you are free to 'take what you need and leave the rest', even if in practise it doesn't always feel that way. I had also reached the conclusion that my higher power would have to be the fellowship, however much of a fudge that might seem.

The point of all this is that at a meeting today I heard a very compelling share from someone who is also an atheist. She started talking about her higher power being 'the stuff over there' (she held her hands in front of her as if holding a large box' over which I have no control and which affects my life'. She had clearly found a way to do what the HP thing is about - to shift some power away from the personal ego and on to something else - something bigger.

She said that once she had accepted that her life was not under her complete control a great weight was lifted.

I have perhaps not described this as articulately as I would have liked, but I have to say I found the woman's approach refreshing and encouraging!

zerothehero

"She said that once she had accepted that her life was not under her complete control a great weight was lifted."

This struck me in that when I started meditating, I was immediately struck by a sense that my thoughts had a certain autonomy as if they are not entirely my own. I can control them to a certain extent, but certainly not completely. Anyone who has tried to focus solely on the breath and quiet the mind knows what I mean. Anyway, I could rephrase the above quote like so:

Once I had accepted that my mind was not under my complete control a great weight was lifted.

dsmaxis10

Galactic Cosmic Force

PhoenixJ

Boleo- I agree with your reflections. And in connection with your avatar- god is just dog spelt backwards.