Reply 3 could have been written by me. Only difference is I am an active member of AA Yes there's stuff in that book that as an agnostic I neither agree with or identify with. For example the chapter To the Agnostic However I have still been able to give and receive enormous help in recovery for nearly 9 years I know I am far from unique in this position

Sigh. I actually don't find these big book quotes in an open forum helpful at all. If I'd read this before going to AA and getting into the program I would have been totally turned off. The language sounds old fashion, overtly religious, and male dominated out of context. And btw....GOD isnt in all caps in the book.

Thank you. I couldn't have said it better myself. What was the point in posting it?

I'm glad the OP posted this, means a lot to me personally. When I was sick in the head I used to think I had every right to think that the world should adjust itself to my opinion and be "PC" to my sensitivities. It's been a long hard slog to get free of that and I continue to address it, with help. One of the many valuable life lessons AA introduced me to is to adjust myself to "what is" and learn to deal with that using spiritual values. I have found that very freeing and my frown lines and personal angst are much diminished!


http://youtu.be/f3jdbFOidds

*LIKE*

The flip side of that quote works too:

Burn the idea into the consciousness of every individual that they can get well regardless of anyone or anything. The only condition is that they be willing to stop drinking at all costs and look for positive things in life and within themselves that help them stay away from a drink.

Yep! language is like that its the idea behind the inspirational mumbo jumpo nothing more nothing less. Thanks Frodo:))
Bilbo Ha!!!

Gets my vote. What's in a word...apart from misunderstandings...simplifications...civil wars...etc :)

Came across another booky wooky quote the other day:
"I noticed that my grudge list was filled with my prejudices and my blaming others for my not being able to succeed and to live up to my potential. I also discovered I felt different because I was ******. As I continued to work....I learned that I always had drunk to rid myself of those feelings. It was only when I sobered up....that I could no longer blame anyone."

I crossed that word out cos the original meant nothing to me at all. Cross it out and I can relate all over...hundreds of words I could throw in the hole to describe my own experience to a tee :)

Anyhoo word wars aside there are plenty of folks here that have gotten sober no matter what life threw up on them along the way. That's a good message to pass :)

P

Sometimes sobriety is like " I'm going to a place where the sun keeps shining through the pouring rain"...

zachary -- the reason why I chose my avatar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ

Absolutely, and for me cleaning house really hit home when I think about how I had to remove the emotional and mental clutter that was preventing me from facing my problems like an adult. Thank you for this. I have found God's blessing in every genuine effort I make to be sober.
I can understand why some people cannot relate to this. It doesn't change my own beliefs; it's like I have heard before; "I am not trying to be intolerant of people who don't believe, really I am not, but I have personally experienced God is some truly miraculous ways that turned me form a non-believer to a believer, and those experiences speak far louder than their disapproval." Let everyone to their own opinion--it doesn't have to affect your own.
That said, I have an atheist friend who was in and out of rehab a few times before she gave AA a chance, and she swears by it, too. Some people have the skills to customize the 12 steps to fit harmoniously into their belief and value centres.. I, on the other hand, am I very spiritual person who needs God in her life daily, and I don't do AA.
To each his own! If I let every person's disapproval or opinion that differed from my own affect me, I would be right back where I started: drinking it all away into oblivion.

i can read between the lines. There was a time when I could not stand AA but are there not some simiarities in various paths of recovery? Do we not all want happy sober and repectful lives and to take responsiblity for our own ac acions? The words may be different but the ideas are pretty much the same. for myself God has everything to do with my sobriety

I am an atheist in AA. For anyone it may help it is perfectly possible to widen the spiritual concepts within the program/big book to incorporate pretty much all spiritual belief systems. i dont believe in the existance of god but with some careful examination of the principles behind the steps of the AA program and making use of those in my life I have been able to stay sober without trusting any god. And there are many people just like me so dont be put off from trying it by quotes like these which out of context of the principles of AA as a whole can see exclusionary.

Hey Nicky, which "principles" do you find useful.
Someone else said this is not an AA site, that's comical.
AA is Faith Healing and hey, if that "works" for you than groovy but don't pretend that it's anything else. There is a placebo effect in that after all. There's also a lot of potential for disaster but let's not nitpick, right? The amount of confirmation bias employed by the AA faithful is through the roof. For those who want to play the ambiguous flip/flop game between Step 2's "spiritual" higher power nonsense and disregard Steps 3, 6 and 7 that's fine and cute but you're delusional. I guess you CAN make AA itself your higher power. Even more groovy, that way you ascribe God status to it in Step 3 .......Not an AA site-that's funny in it's own right.

It's not an AA bashing site either.