AA and the Non-Believer

Whilst 12 Step Programs require a belief in God, Alcoholics Anonymous claims to be non-discriminatory on matters of belief for the purposes of membership.

Third Tradition: The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

However, whilst Atheist and Agnostic members are tolerated, the sobriety of the non-believer challenges the very assumptions that underpin the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous:

‘(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.

(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.

(c) That God could and would if He were sought.’ - p60

Chapter 4 of the basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous, We Agnostics, demonstrates the contempt for the non-believer that is at the core of the Program, its beliefs and values.

Alcoholics Anonymous attributes the following traits to the non-believer:

1.      The non-believer is prejudiced

·         ‘We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p46

·         ‘Besides a seeming inability to accept much on faith, we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p48

·         ‘We, who have travelled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p49

·         ‘We can only clear the ground a bit.  If our testimony helps sweep away prejudice, enables you to think honestly, encourages you to search diligently within yourself, then, if you wish, you can join us on the Broad Highway.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p55

2.             The non-believer is intolerant

·         ‘We talked of intolerance, while we were intolerant ourselves.  We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p50

3.      The non-believer is arrogant

·         ‘Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God’s ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all.  Rather vain of us, wasn’t it?’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p49

·         ‘We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p49

·         ‘Actually we were fooling ourselves, for deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God.  It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there.  For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p55

·         ‘True humility and an open mind can lead us to faith, and every A.A. meeting is an assurance that God will restore us to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to Him.’ - 12 x 12, p33

4.           The non-believer is antagonistic

·         ‘Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism.  This sort of thinking had to be abandoned.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p48

5.           The non-believer is unreasonable

·         ‘Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions.  In this respect alcohol was a great persuader.  It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness.  Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one else will be prejudiced for as long as some of us were.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p48

·         ‘We asked ourselves this: Are not some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as were the ancients about the realm of the material?’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p51

6.           The non-believer is illogical

·         ‘When, however, the perfectly logical assumption is suggested that underneath the material world and life as we see it, there is an All Powerful, Guiding, Creative Intelligence, right there our perverse streak comes to the surface and we laboriously set out to convince ourselves it isn’t so.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p49

·         ‘We read wordy books an indulge in windy arguments, thinking we believe this universe needs no God to explain it.  Were our contentions true, it would follow that life originated out of nothing, means nothing, and proceeds nowhere.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p49

·         ‘People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about.  Actually, we used to have no reasonable conception whatever.’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p49

·         ‘Hence we are at pains to tell why we think our present faith is reasonable, why we think it more sane and logical to believe than not to believe, why we say our former thinking was soft and mushy when we threw up our hands in doubt and said, “We don’t know.”’ - Alcoholics Anonymous, p53

When God Is A Group of Drunks

A Group Of Drunks, the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, or a ‘Home Group’ Meeting are commonly used by members of Alcoholics Anonymous as representations of a Higher Power.

But, for the purposes of the 12 Step Program, this conception of God is insufficient.

Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

A member who has a Group of Drunks as their conception of God must therefore:

1.   Confess the findings of the Fourth Step to the membership of a meeting.

2.   Pray to the membership of a meeting, and act in accordance with its will.

God As Who Understands Him?

The word God is commonly held to mean ‘the one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe’ (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/god).

Alcoholics Anonymous uses the terms God, Higher Power and Power Greater than Ourselves interchangeably, with belief claimed to be an essential element of the Program.

Step 2: Came to believe that a Power Greater than Ourselves could restore us to sanity.

However, AA also claims that the reader can choose of their own conception of God.

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God.  ‘ – Alcoholics Anonymous, p

Much to our relief, we discovered we did not need to consider another’s conception of God.  Our own conception, however inadequate, was sufficient to make the approach and to effect a contact with Him. – Alcoholics Anonymous, p

But, there are constraints on what form that conception may take.

New members are advised that a Higher Power could be any number of things, including:

1.   Group of Drunks

2.   Sponsor

3.   Mother Nature

4.   Doorknob

These proposed conceptions of God shall be subjected to the necessary constraints identified within the basic text.

1.   God must be a God

‘As soon as we admitted the possible existence of a Creative Intelligence, a Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things, we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps.’ – Alcoholics Anonymous, p46

The first constraint is a primary: failure to meet the primary constraint invalidates the conception of God and prohibits further consideration.

Each of the proposed conceptions of God fails to meet the first constraint.

2.   God must be able to accomplish acts

Step 2: Came to believe that a Power Greater than Ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step 7: Humble asked him to remove our shortcomings.

‘This Power has in each case accomplished the miraculous, the humanly impossible.’ – Alcoholics Anonymous, p51

Whilst the first three proposed conceptions of God may meet the second constraint, they are invalidated by failure to meet the primary constraint and prohibited from further consideration.

The fourth conception of God fails to meet the second constraint.

3.   God must be contactable

Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

‘At the start, this was all we needed to commence spiritual growth, to effect our first conscious relation with God as we understood Him.’  – Alcoholics Anonymous, p47

Whilst the first and second conceptions of God are contactable, they are invalidated by failure to meet the primary constraint and prohibited from further consideration.

The third and fourth conceptions of God fail to meet the third constraint.

Do the 12 Steps achieve their primary purpose?

AA members all over the world proclaim: "It Works!" - But does it really?

When making this statement, 12-Steppers are usually referring to their sobriety: "I didn't go to AA, I was drunk.  I go to AA, I am sober - It Works!"

But Steppers who make this claim are ignorant of the primary purpose of the 12 Steps: to enable alcoholics to find a Higher Power.  By focussing on the secondary pupose, relief from alcoholism, they are missing the point.  After all, the basic text proclaims:

'Our liquor was but a symptom.' - page 64, Alcoholics Anonymous

So, what is the problem, if not liquor?

'Selfishness-self-centredness!  That, we think, is the root of our troubles.' - page 62, Alcoholics Anonymous

'Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness.  We must, or it kills us!  God makes that possible.  And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid.' - page 62, Alcoholics Anonymous

According to Alcoholics Anonymous, without God the alcoholic will die.  The Steps save lives by connecting the alcoholic with a Higher Power, God.

Therefore in order to determine the effectiveness of the 12 Steps, we cannot avoid the question of whether there is a God to find.  With no evidence to support the claim that a God exists, there can be no evidence that the 12 Steps have achieved their primary purpose.

With no evidence of a God, there is no evidence that the 12 Steps work.

What is the Purpose of the 12 Steps?

In order to assess the effectiveness of the 12 Steps, we must first assess the purpose of the Program of Recovery as described in the basic text, Alcoholics Anonymous.

'Well, that’s exactly what this book is about.  Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem.  That means we have written a book which we believe to be spiritual as well as moral.  And it means, of course, that we are going to talk about God.' - page 45, Alcoholics Anonymous

The problem being referred to in this passage Alcoholism.  Therefore, the primary purpose of the 12 Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous is to enable the reader to find a Power Greater than themselves, otherwise known as God.  The secondary pupose is to enable the reader to be relieved of alcoholism.