I donāt see anything stupid or dumb in what youāve just wrote 
I think everyone here believe in good and evil (or bad I would say)
Never feel dumb for following your own heart Dan. And donāt think your stupid. Everyone can believe what they want. Weāre all free in that. We just shouldnāt try to force our world view upon others. Itās al personal and no one should tell another how to think and what to believe.
Personally I think thereās good and bad in everyone and it depends on so much factors what comes out most of us. I donāt believe in heaven and hell unless those are places right here on earth, places both of our own creation and places we can end up in through no fault or achievement of our own. But thatās me. You do you. Freedom of thought. Just like freedom from drugs and booze actually 
I think there is definitely some really powerful symbology associated with religion (from modern day back to ancient mythologies) and I can see why that speaks to people.
For me I donāt know, I feel like there is enough crazy in this realm to start adding in extra ones 
but also I never got that deep into heavy narcotic use so I am coming at it from a different place.
@dalex77_2 @Astro moving here as itās not on topic for atheist sobriety, but no harm no foul! Feel free to continue the conversation here or I can set up a new thread if you prefer 
I also love John Cleese, and Life of Brian is one of my favourite films. 
I definitely donāt think you personally are appallingly dull - far from it - but I was looking for a clip that was funny and touched on the, how shall we say, classically British range of emotions. I mean, even the classic āstiff upper lipā is based on what? Enduring suffering.
Keep calm and fan on through this heat wave 
Omg this made me laugh.
This dance is becoming a ballroom dance.
Hi, there. You say you were āsoberā, but you failed to work a recovery program daily. Being āsoberā is not being āin recoveryā. White knuckling it for 10 years is like being an amateur and walking a tightrope over two skyscrapers without a safety net. Iāve been in continuous recovery for over 28 years for one big reason: 12 Step meetings and working and living a recovery program every day.
Without my Program and an interest in a spiritual life, Iād be just another nervous walking disaster area with a messy life and fleeting joy and satisfaction in life.
How do you know she was white knuckling it may I ask I use 12 step meetings but people can get sober without them itās not the only way not everyone who is sober and not using 12 step recovery meetings is miserable
like you i have been working the program into my life for a few decades now and its made my recovery a lot easier with the steps. , if people can stay sober long time without it then thats fine but i use AA and it worked for me from first meeting to today , nice meeting you Heater.
Both ASAM and Terrence Gorski reported many years ago based on longitudinal studies that number one, only 2% (two percent) of alcoholics and drug addicts remain off mind altering substances past the two year milestone. So odds are stacked against you and you need all the insurance against relapse you cam find. Of those who are still abstinent past that milestone, the ONLY common denominator among them was regular attendance in 12 Step or spiritual (such as church) recovery programs. When you find scientific proof that contradicts this conclusion, get back to me.
So there is no one sober for longer than 2 years who hasnāt worked a program or gone to church??
AA keeps me sober but thatās a bold statement.
There are people on here with more than two years sober that havenāt taken the AA or church route but actively work on their sobriety 
Not scientific evidence - its a fact of life.
Agreed! 4.5 years sober here without AA or a similar group. For me if I had to try to start figuring out what keeps me sober (so that we can find the overarching threads of what helps maintain long term sobriety), Iād say that it came down to probably more than a few thingsā¦but pre-coffee, this is what I got:
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I did have that MOMENT where I realized I was killing myself, looked in the mirror and said āno moreā¦.this has to stopā
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I read a ton of books on sobriety. āIn the Realm of Hungry Ghostsā by Dr. Gabor MatĆØ, Alan Carrās āEasy Way to Control Alcoholā, Russell Brandās Recovery and also myriad drug and alcohol recovery memoirs were all really helpful in helping me understand my addiction
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sobriety was not a hope or wish, it was my full time job.
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this app. I was on it a ton in the beginning and regularly today. Reading, posting, staying connected
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meditation and restorative yoga. I know that we are selfish assholes in active addiction, but Iāve also found that, at least for some of us, our addiction is born from both really negative self image and care as well as underlying anxiety or depression. These two practices have helped me to address my own self loathing to begin loving and caring for myself as well as providing me with tools to manage the underlying anxiety that made my life unmanageable enough to want to drink and use drugs back in the day.
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I am a teacher, and being of service to others as much as I can in any given day helps me pay forward the gifts of my sobriety
Iām sure there are others, but I think this is a good start. I love anything that helps someone get soberā¦and I think the broader our understanding of what works, the easier it is to see that there are sobriety paths out there for anyone that wants. They need not be subscribing to something that doesnāt feel right if it doesnāt feel right. I had an AA-er tell me in early sobriety that I had no fucking chance without AA as my recovery program. I never told himā¦but it threw me into a momentary bout of despair so early in my search for sobriety. To this day I havenāt ruled out going to AA, particularly if I relapse or begin fantasizing about drinking or using.
But at the time, I had a few legitimately negative experiences with AA people that turned me off choosing that path, and his comment made me feel as though I was hopeless and would die from addiction. I am very glad I didnāt listen to this person, as I think they were a bit angry, resentful and blinded by their own shit (arenāt we all?), but words have power, and I Want to use mine to let people know that long-term sobriety is possible in a lot of different ways through a lot of different paths. I think the most important ingredient is a 100% commitment.
Thereās a lot of back-and-forth on here, and a lot of people who chime in to say they hate AA. I try to engage in these conversations as little as possible, and really only to support AA as I think that it has done amazing and immeasurable things for our world. Butā¦ Since it is so polarizing, I do think itās helpful to discuss the over arching tenants of what helps people get and stay sober, To help those that for whatever reason find an AA path to be an impossibility.
Have an amazing sober day everyoneā¤ļø
EDIT: went back to make sense of everything by correcting some of the MANY typos 
post coffee of course