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Page: 52

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Faith, Intellect, Doubt, Logic, Reason

·        What have we been given?

It is not by chance we were given the power to reason, to examine the evidence of our senses, and to draw conclusions.

·        Is it an asset or a liability?

That is one of man's magnificent attributes.

·        What would an agnostic not be satisfied with?

We agnostically inclined would not feel satisfied with a proposal which does not lend itself to reasonable approach and interpretation.

·        What do we have difficulty in telling?

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."

·         As hopeless alcoholics, what proposition must we face?

When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing.

" . . . . God is everything . . . " is not to be taken out of context to fit someone’s pantheistic, non-dualistic religious philosophy. When kept in context, not stretched to fit, we see how it is about our choice of Him over all else, not a declaration about the nature of God. 

"everything" refers to the dominant role He is to play in our lives. it isn't a lesson in His place in the universe. That is WAY too spacey a proclamation for this crew. 

If it is true that He is 'everything' then that hardly leaves room for us to be 'anything,' especially not God. The spot is already taken and by default, we are 'nothing.'

Ego-self might jump in and tells us, “Well since this says that God is everything, and we are part of ‘everything’ then we must be God too” but whenever ego-self speaks - it is lying. 

This is a “me too” philosophy that has gotten many a seeker into deep spiritual conflict. Remember, these were non-denominational, Judeo/Christian believers who had adopted Judeo/Christian non-religious, spiritual principles…and they worked for them. Which is not saying that Non-Judeo/Christian principles wouldn’t work too.

Maybe they would, but those aren’t being embraced here as is sometimes speciously suggested.

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

 http://stepelevencomesalive.blogspot.com/