I went on Pinterest to search for inspiring recovery quotes that doesn’t involve a god, and every single meme was spiritual or had the word god in it. That really ticks me off. Not everyone is religious. I’ll try Google 
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I follow a few sober Instagram people who aren’t at all religious. When I get a minute, I’ll link them here.
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Nice! I did a post many years ago about the 12 steps without God. I’m glad you can find support and resources. It’s always nice when this thread provides that.
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I love that your memes and posts are about coexistence and the benefits of atheism rather than just advancing your position by making fun of religion.
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Well i am agnostic as i am yet to see anyone prove that god, either does or doesn’t exist! When I see complete proof either way, I will happily change my mind. Also I would like to say, I think every human being should be allowed to have whatever religious beliefs they want as long as it doesn’t hurt any other human being!
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I’d say the burden of proof lies with the people claiming a god exists. But never mind. I totally agree with what you’re saying about people believing what they want just as long as they don’t hurt others with their beliefs.
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I’m a bad atheist. My atheism goes as far as my conviction that here is no god and my knowledge of atheism doesn’t go further than that really. I strongly believe the holy scriptures of all religions are interesting pieces of human culture made by human hands and minds. And reveal aspects of human society and thinking. I feel it’s preposterous to believe just one of these scriptures to be the true word of a god or gods. Making all the others scriptures worthless.
That’s as far as my atheism goes. Therefore I much prefer to call myself a humanist. I know more about humanism, which I see as a realistic and positive outlook on life, one that doesn’t concern itself with the supernatural but instead bases itself on the observable universe, on science, on trying to work on a fair society, on caring for ourselves and each other, on a mutual responsibility for our lives, our societies, our world.
For me basically that is what life is about. And for me the connection to Recovery is clear. The opposite of addiction is connection. Humanism is about connection, about connection between people, but also about our connection to all other living beings, and also our connection to our planet.
Together we are responsible for our well-being and that of the entire planet. That’s the core of my Humanism. And personally I think that a belief in an outside deity, in the supernatural, indeed in a higher power, distracts from that common responsibility we have as humans.
I know many folks have had terrible experiences in and out, and because of organized religion. I am truly sorry for and horrified by that. But there are also plenty of people who gained great moral strength from their belief in a god and did good to humanity based on that belief. Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King come to mind as just two examples.
And the same can be said about socialism, the doctrine I was brought up with, which brought forth monsters like Stalin and Mao but also shaped European society into something liveable for the vast majority of its people. So it’s not black and white. I don’t own the truth but I will keep looking for it. X
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I’ve already stated that I’m staying away from all kind of religion,and preferably all kind of rules as much as I can.
But I do think that humanity itself of maybe humans does need something to believe in that gives them hope, and helps them to understand and explain the world.
There’s proof that the people as early as the early stone age did believe in something,some kind of “God/Gods” or afterlife, we’ve seen it in graves and items that was placed in those graves.
Ancient tribes and folks all over the world had their gods, the Vikings did too.
The need for writing those believes and ideas down did come much later.
So I totally agree with you,all those scriptures is indeed an interesting piece of Human history. And it’s overall an interesting discussion. The most interesting thing in my opinion is that they all seem to have the golden rule in common. Be a good person and people will be good to you. And to this day, it’s still what we believe in. Even if the idea on how to be a good person depends on who you ask.
Organized religion on the other hand is something else, it has always been used as a tool to control people and make them do what they where told. People who live in fear tend to obey. It’s the same no matter where you look,Voodo priests have used it (Zombies anyone?) Christan church in all shapes is excellent at it, extreme branches of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism or whatever keeps doing it, even in our modern times.
It’s a shame, but as I said most humans needs some kind of hope and when you can’t find it within yourself you will look elsewhere. And the idea of an almighty God becomes comforting.
In socilaizm that you mentioned there’s no God at all if it goes to extremes and becomes communism, such as Mao or Stalin. The State/Government because the Almighty and now’s what’s best. If you’re brought up with it, you tend to believe it. I’m a Swede, I think we need a little bit of both socialism where the government owns things that absolutely have to work no matter the money, like schools, hospitals and all that.
Even if I do hate the “Big Brother sees you, and gets involved in everything” I think people are fully capable of deciding for them selves. Otherwise I’m pretty happy with what we have here. Do I think the politicians should have sky High salary and luxurious apartments? Maybe not, but on the other side I wouldn’t want to be responsible for an entire country and have every minute of my life reviewed in public either.
Sorry for the extreme long post. I feel like I could discuss this for hours. It’s so interesting 
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Helen Walton, “its not you gather, it is what you scatter”
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Gosh, I know and struggle with this one.
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Nah, I just don’t bother talking to people that are completely hopeless. No effort needed,they kinda sort themselves out.
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I have stayed away from this thread for reasons I don’t yet know, but have just read a lot of the recent posts. Humanism is something that really interests me. I love the idea of connection and am not an atheist. I don’t really know what I am!?
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Thank you, that sounds perfect. I even did a quiz on the Humanist website. 90% (of course, now I am nearly there I want to get 100% 
)
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On my father’s funeral a few years ago we had a song from a Swedish/Netherlands artist
(Cornelis Vreeswijk the name of the song is Sommarkort) not sure there’s songs translated into any other language than Swedish.
But anyway he was one of my father’s favorite singers. And the first lines in the song goes.
"Some people say that we live forever,and a day.
Although death,is the most true thing we know yet.
Other people say that happiness is in a moment, although,they never caught it until it all got away. "
My Pa was that kind of person who drank his morning coffee out on the porch everyday no matter the season, because he wanted to “See the day,take a look at the nature of the season and feel life” as he said.
I think of that a lot.
I also think about something my husband usually says. He is the kind of person who helps everyone if he can. He’ll help an old lady pack her groceries and carry them home. He’ll pay a poor Mom’s groceries, He’ll let friends in need stay at or place for months. Babysit,fix someone’s car. I’m sure y’all know the deal.
He is also a pure atheist and usually says the only person he believes in is himself.
When I ask him why he helps everyone all the time if he doesn’t even try to gather extra points to get to heaven he simply says “I’m a human, this is how we’re supposed to do it”
And he’s right, that’s how we’re supposed to do it.
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