Cult Concerns of AA

And that is the truth, faced with someone in trouble… wasn’t that you once?? Nice mate, I hope when i get there I am kinder

Nice man, not. I wish you all the love in the world. xxx

Jane, you are not a bad person. You are not the only one who is not religious. This forum is full of people who don’t believe in God.
Some use AA some don’t.
Likewise there are probably religious people who dont do AA.
The only thing I’m going to say is if you really want to get sober you should have an open mind to try anything. There are other ways.
But whatever path you choose, they all require an open mind set to believe in yourself.

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I am with AA and I can honestly say I’m kind of anti religious and always will be.
If you feel this is religious find another group.

It’s not religious, its about spirituality. Switch god to higher power and the power can be anything you just have to be open to it… A good higher power to start would be your sponsor or the group as a whole. I drink we don’t .

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I am only just starting the steps. I am not religious. Not even spiritual. Think we are just random cells and electric impulses. But have not made sobriety stick properly so am trying it. My sponsor said take what u like and leave the rest, so I may be leaving a lot, we’ll see. I also found a meeting where they don’t pray at the end.

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@Messyme1070 lots of people do find AA difficult to engage with because of the ‘god thing’. If you search AA atheist you will get a flavour of the posts. Remember that there are lots of people here, atheists and non-atheists, who passionately believe in AA. For many it has saved their life. Calling it a cult is understandably upsetting and you have had the fallout from that.

It is ok if AA is not for you. Many of us here have stayed sober without attending meetings - although all of us who are active here will have had our fair share of AA wisdom! Personally I have found that helpful but we are all free to take what works and leave the rest.

There are so many wonderful resources for recovery, a good selection listed here:

I hope that wherever you are in your sobriety journey you can find the kindness and support that I have on this forum. When we search for similarities rather than difference it can help :pray::sparkling_heart:

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Hi Jane, Whether or not AA is a cult is debatable and perhaps irrelevant. When I did a chair in an AA meeting I created a very considered debate on the subject. I was in a recognised cult once (Exegesis) before I broke out. AA is very different to that and was established with good intentions and full of people who are well meaning and who understand where you are coming from. I go to AA and CA meetings to be with friends who are in the same boat. I do not do the 12 steps any more nor do I have sponsor, but that is my personal choice. This site is certainly not affiliated to AA but there are some people on here who have found a lot of benefit from it and who have taken their “God” to mean anything that works including "Group Of Drunks).

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Why would you be blocked for expressing concerns ? I hope these paragraphs from the Big Book will say it better than I could ever do.

To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.
But it isn’t so difficult. About half our original fellowship were of exactly that type. At first some of us tried to avoid the issue, hoping against hope we were not true alcoholics. But after a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life–or else. Perhaps it is going to be that way with you. But cheer up, something like half of us thought we were atheists or agnostics. Our experience shows that you need not be disconcerted.

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Plenty of athiests in AA. I will admit: 1) I go to AA, 2) there are some meetings I have been to that are very religious sounding. However, there are a ton of different meetings out there. Find one that speaks to you. Amazingly enough, growing up a Christian, the meeting that impacts me the most…is very athiest. Some times on our Sober journey, we find a path that we didnt think we would travel…but the path fits like an old shoe.

Keep an open mind. Do what you need to do to be sober.

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No one is blocking her from anything. I posted on another thread telling a completely different person to hit some meetings to find a sponsor. Then this random person starts replying to me about religion and God for reasons unknown. Then to top it all off she’s managed to convince everyone that she’s the victim.

Ta-da!

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Honestly it doesn’t make a flying pigshit of difference what you believe in or not

What’s wrong with flying pigshit?
Love Piglet

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I take it youve been to many AA meetings to have a opinion .if you havnt please dont share what you dont know anything about wish you well

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i dont know much about cults, but i enjoy it and think its pretty cool (for a cult).

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I am an atheist and I avoid alcoholics anonymous because of all the higher power talk. That just isn’t for me.

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If joining a cult would have gotten me sober I would have done that too.

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when you are a nail everything seems like a hammer.

anyway. im an atheist and the higher power god stuff at AA didnt bother me but the creeper men did. also it was a lot of horror stories I couldnt relate too. so not for me. but its not like there’s no other programs out there.

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I was wondering where the OP is actually?
@Messyme1070? How you doing?

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yes and you’ll find the sober ones praying in the corner :+1:

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I think a lot of people forget that to use a program, ANY program, you don’t have to agree with every single thing.

I have a computer. I use it. It helps me. But there is crap on there I don’t understand and don’t want to understand. That doesn’t mean I am throwing out my computer.

I don’t use AA for a couple of reasons, which are my own. One of them is NOT the “God” bit. You can search all over this forum and find out how non-believers define their higher power: Nature, the people in the rooms, self, etc.

It’s a case of "Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater because of crap you’ve heard. Like @Ray_M_C_Laren (who knows a hell of a lot more than any of us) said, if you haven’t gone - don’t act like you know. Or, Don’t knock it until you try it. Or if nothing else, try something else and praise that program rather than bash a program you don’t “like”.

And @Messyme1070, Jane, I hope you are OK and you come back.

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I was going to post this, but you did it for me.

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