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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yes and you’ll find the sober ones praying in the corner 
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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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That is why you choose a God of your understaing. Christian dogma doesn’t work in the modern era. Your salvation is between you and God. Atheistic solutions bind you to the material world, claiming no other supernatural worlds exist. I was the worst skeptic possible, and I needed a miracle to see that God exist. Faith was not enough. I needed proof. Proof of an afterlife.
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lol true. i was a DEDICATED member of julius kesslers cult. haha
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Hello!
This is my first post. I will tread carefully 
I walked into an AA meeting on December 2nd last year. I have been sober since then.The welcome I received was open and whole-hearted. I felt an imediate emotional connection with the group, even though I seldom speak more than a few words.
I too was wary of the godly aspects of the organisation, as my opinions are sometimes wrathfully anti-religious. It is made very clear, however, that god pertains to that which you believe is ‘bigger’ than you. Something that is not you from which you can take power and/or relinquish your problems. Basically, whatever works for you.
There are fantastic people with wonderful, sometimes wonderfully awful, stories that you may identify with. These allowed me to learn without living through the chaos that alcohol had caused the speaker.
Every group will be different, of course. Find one that suits you is my advice. Definitely give it a shot.
Good luck!
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Certain people need program to rely on, like they once needed the bottle. It’s a program that states it is based on being non-judgemental, but whenever I browse these sorts of threads, I always find AA advocates harrasing anyone who chooses not to believe in the movement.
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It’s not harrasing anyone.
For me it’s the fact that they slag something off that could work for someone else.
All it needs is a polite, “not for me” and move on.
It might save someone else’s life, but they may be put off by what someone says.
Simples!
And you know I don’t do AA. But I’m not slagging it off.
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Yeah but Geo I’ve read the threads. Generally in a lot of instances it is harrasing other people. I’ve been on the receiving end for simply recommending alternatives to a 12 step - from a person who was asking for alternatives to a 12 step 
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Having been on this forum for almost 3 years I can safely say that many people have discussed alternatives to AA without any blowback. I’m an AA guy myself but I support all types of recovery, including SMART, therapy, IOP, rehab and Recovery Dharma (this one sounds particularly cool). If people were speaking out against you it was mostly likely the delivery of the message rather than the message itself. It’s possible to be pro other forms of recovery while not being anti-AA. If you’ve noticed, most the AA people love AA and that’s why they discuss it. What you typically don’t see is people from AA bashing other forms of recovery. Though AA is very prevelant on this site, it also the most often attacked. Maybe the problem isn’t with everyone else?
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Hey mate I’m not bashing AA at all. Simply recounting my experience. But this reinforces my point anyway.
Figured. You take any disagreement with your views as a personal attack. I was very similar when I was in early recovery. You must of glossed over the parts where I said I support all types of recovery. I can’t recall exactly what you said previously, and honestly I don’t really care to scroll back and find out, but I recall it being fairly negative and inflammatory to people who believe in God. I could be wrong though.
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