Prejudice For Alcoholic Approval Junkies

Page: 49

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Belief, Prejudice, Willingness, Faith, Intelligence

Good morning. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Today we are seeing how the co-authors relate the validity of human intelligence with respect to its handling of the spiritual realm.

• How should we consider ourselves?

Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation,

• How do some of us consider ourselves?

we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all.

• Did this belief hold value?

Rather vain of us, wasn't it?

Vain – valueless, inconsequential, empty, trifling 2. Without force or effect. ~ The Winston Simplified Dictionary – 1938

• Those of us who have been there and done it, what do we beg of the reader?

We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice,

 

 Prejudice - a bias, favorable or unfavorable. ~ The Winston Simplified Dictionary – 1938

Sometimes we assume with 'prejudice' means it OK to approve as long we do not disapprove. That is incorrect. Approval is also prejudging. Setting aside prejudice means being neutral not passing judgement either yay or nay. It's not that easy for the alcoholic who is frequently a dyed in the wool approval junkies, as addicted to giving it as he is receiving it. 

• OK so we set aside our be bias not being for or against  - but does that include being against organized religion?

even against organized religion.

• What have we learned?

We have learned that whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions.

They are getting to an important point here. Stay with us!

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA
Real Live Recovered Alcoholic
http://recoveredalcoholic.blogspot.com

Who Made This?

They had visioned the Great Reality - their loving and All
Powerful Creator. (161:0)

Page: 48/49*

Step we're on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Belief, Willingness, Worship, Faith

Read Time: 2 mins.

We are on page 48.  Should pure logic be used to explain away the universe? Is there a Creator?

• What is constantly being revealed?
  
  
  It is being constantly revealed, as mankind studies the material world, that outward appearances are not inward reality at all.

• What is an example of this?

To illustrate:  The prosaic steel girder is a mass of electrons whirling around each other at incredible speed

Prosaic – Pertaining to or resembling, prose 2. Ordinary, commonplace; dull,uninteresting.~ The Winston Simplified Dictionary – 1938

 Page 49

• Do we doubt this theory?  Three sentences

These tiny bodies are governed by precise laws, and these laws hold true throughout the material world. Science tells us so. We have no reason to doubt it.

"With great intelligence, men of science have been forcing nature to
disclose her secrets." (12&12.p70)

• What happens when someone wants to talk about God?

When, however, the perfectly logical assumption is suggested that underneath the material world and life as we see it, there is an All-Powerful, Guiding, Creative Intelligence, right there our perverse streak comes to the surface and we laboriously set out to convince ourselves it isn't so.

• What thinking are we trying to support when we read books and engage in arguments?

We read wordy books and indulge in windy arguments, thinking we believe this universe needs no God to explain it.

•  If this were correct, then what else would be true?

Were our contentions true, it would follow that life originated out of nothing, means nothing, and proceeds nowhere.

Even though roughly half of the co-authors of "Alcoholics Anonymous" started out as atheists or agnostics, they soon "came to believe" and once spiritually awakened, no longer had a questionable or Godless view of the universe. They believed in, spoke of and wrote about God. 

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

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* This is one of the funkiest* sections in the whole Big Book. It is very atypical, contrasting the writing style and voice of the rest of the book.

And for good reason.

The co-authors sacrifice much time, ink and paper in an attempt to explain the difference between faith in God and doubting God. Not an insignificant subject.

They do a pretty good job of it too.

They use many metaphors and examples dedicated to the single point - but like a screenplay or film treatment, it really needs to be read in one single dose for the momentum to build and gather the semantic steam necessary to fully convince.

In addition to following along, it is strongly suggested that you also read pages 48 through 57 in one sitting! Don't' memorize. Don't try to remember. Just read the whole piece all at once. This is just a suggestion but it is based on having done this hundred of times with others.

Many OLD-TIMERS don't even 'get' these pages and skip over it quickly. Don't. If you do, the co-author's point can be too easily lost.

Please read pages 48-57 with this care and you won't be sorry.

* Read: "Most profound"

Reasons to Believe in God

"He was as much a fact as we were. We found the Great
Reality deep down within us." (53:3)

Page: 48

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Belief, Willingness, Worship, Faith

Spiritual Theories vs Facts and Results

• What may the reader still ask?

The reader may still ask why he should believe in a Power greater than himself.

• What kind of reasons are there?

We think there are good reasons.

•  What are we going to do?

Let us have a look at some of them.

• Who likes facts and results?

The practical individual of today is a stickler for facts and results.

God either is, or He isn't. What was our choice to be?(53:3)

• At this point in history, what are we willing to accept?

Nevertheless, the twentieth century readily accepts theories of all kinds,

• They must be based on what?

provided they are firmly grounded in fact.

But is this insistence on PROOF of God's existence going to help us find Him? What the co-authors discovered, begins tomorrow:

TOMORROW

• What theory does Bill use as an example?
• Who doubts this power?
• Why?  (2 sentences)
• Everybody now believes what?
• But what is lacking?
• What has science demonstrated?

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA
Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

http://recoveredalcoholic.blogspot.com

Open Minded

"... any alcoholic . . . can recover,
provided he does not close his
mind to all spiritual concepts."

Step we're on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject:  Belief, Willingness, Faith, Worship, Prejudice, Open-mindedness 

Happy New Year everyone. 

Being open minded meant getting rid of some of what we thought we already knew about spirituality.

• Faced with what?

Faced with alcoholic destruction,

Comment:  Does this sound like Step One?

• We became what?

we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions.

Comment:  Does this sound like Step Two?

• What persuaded us?

In this respect alcohol was a great persuader.

"It meant I would have to throw several lifelong
conceptions out of the window." 

• It did what?

It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness.

• Did this happen easily?

Sometimes this was a tedious process;

Tedious - 1. wearisome, which wearies either mind or body or both to the point of lassitude and exhaustion. ~ The Winston Simplified Dictionary – 1938

No "Easy Does It" here.

• What is one of our hopes?

we hope no one else will be prejudiced for as long as some of us were.

Prejudice - 1. Hasty, premature judgment 2. a bias, favorable or unfavorable  ~ The Winston Simplified Dictionary – 1938

Once more we can be reminded of Fred the Accountant who upon consideration of the drastic spiritual program of action being proposed - observed, "It meant I would have to throw several lifelong conceptions out of the window."  (42:2) 

"The principles we have set down .  .  .  ."

The spiritual principles in this book are general enough so as not to conflict with Judeo- Christian beliefs common to most denomination but can conflict with other kinds of spiritual principles; open-mindedness to "the principles we have set down" will be necessary. The sooner the better.

Question: Does open-minded mean that we ought to take the position that ALL spiritual principles are valid? Or does it mean we are to become open minded so as to accept certain ones in this book - throwing out others? (See Fred for the answer.)

Leading a spiritual double-life in recovery can be very confusing and deleterious to growth. 

We can encourage protégées to not cross the line of open-mindedness into gullibility. There is a difference. People who accept anything - and who do not make sure that it adheres to "the principles we have been discussing" in the Big Book end up with conflicting positions and spiritual practices that cancel themselves out and this "program".

“It’s good to be open minded, just don’t let your brains fall out.”

TOMORROW:

• What may the reader still ask?
• What kind of reasons are there?
• What are we going to do?
• Who likes facts and results?
• At this point in history, what are we willing to accept?
• They must be based on what?

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

http://recoveredalcoholic.blogspot.com

So Touchy

"At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride
and prejudice fell from my eyes." ~ Bill W

Page: 47

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Belief, Willingness, Faith, Worship, Obstinacy, Prejudice

Good morning. Merry Christmas to all. 

• When recovered alcoholics presented spiritual approaches to our problem, what did we say? 

Three sentences

When people presented us with spiritual approaches, how frequently did we all say, "I wish I had what that man has. I'm sure it would work if I could only believe as he believes. But I cannot accept as surely true the many articles of faith which are so plain to him."

Comment: Is this one of the main things we should look for in a sponsor - the fortitude to stand steadfast in his faith based not on what anyone has told him, but what he understands is true, in his heart?

"Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning.
I saw that growth could start from that point."

What was it comforting to learn?

So it was comforting to learn that we could commence at a simpler level.

A commencement is a beginning. There are levels to spirituality; degrees of growth. We only have to get on the first rung of the ladder to begin  the journey.

• What were we unable to do?

Besides a seeming inability to accept much on faith,

Page 48

• What was our handicap?

we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.

"Faith has to work twenty-four hours a
day in and through us, or we perish."

• How do many of us react to the mention of spiritual things?

Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism.

• Is this sort of thinking OK?

This sort of thinking had to be abandoned.

Remember Fred the accountant when he said, "It meant I would have to throw several lifelong conceptions out of the window. That was not easy." (42:2)

• Even though some of us resisted the idea, what happened?

Though some of us resisted, we found no great difficulty in casting aside such feelings.

They had no great difficulty because they were ready to go to any length – even to God. When that is the case, when WILLINGNESS is present, it is not all that hard to set aside our preconceptions about spirituality and to let go of blinding baggage, even some religious and spiritual principles which might otherwise hinder accepting the non-religious, spiritual principles we are about to asked to accept through this book. 

Open-mindedness to these principles is necessarily.

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

http://recoveredalcoholic.blogspot.com

Approaching God

At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view.

Page: 46

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Belief, Willingness, Comprehending God, Prejudice

Good morning. Laying aside prejudices is the subject.

Do you recall back in "Bill's Story," when Bill W was still a little screwy, confused on the God issue and hadn't yet "come to believe"?

It was a time where for him concepts like Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind or Spirit of Nature all felt fine. But he is about to get beyond these. He has to drop those concepts, and when he does. . . well, let's see Who he discovers:

• Have we displayed our agnostic disposition in thought and behaviors?

Yes, we of agnostic temperament have had these thoughts and experiences.

AGAIN. "WE" are the agnostics. It is US!

• What do we want to hurry and do?

Let us make haste to reassure you.

• What happens when we are able to lay aside our prejudices and become willing?

We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves,

It is a Power greater than ourselves. How do we know that we are NOT God? Because we cannot be greater than ourselves. We can only be ourselves. 

This puts a damper on the creeping Pantheism and New Thought spiritualism and non-duality we experience in the AA fellowship, doesn't it?  

• This happens even though what?

we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, 

• And what do we call that Power? 

which is God.

Finally His identity is stated. God is the name of the Higher Power. So much for the Almighty Light-bulb or Group of Drunks. (Can you imaging asking a Group of Drunks to remove your shortcomings or supply you with intuition?) Once Bill "came to believe" he was able to grow beyond his original prejudices and reject ideas he once could accept. Ideas like Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind or Spirit of Nature were good enough to start with, but now he could discard those and instead accept God - and so can we when we if we "come to believe" in Him. Like Bill did.

God - the one Supreme and Absolute Being, the ultimate source of the universe.~ The Winston Simplified Dictionary Encyclopedic Edition (1938)

We do have a comprehension of God. It is just not a complete comprehension. There is no need to feign total ignorance on the subject of God. God does, after all, reveal some of Himself to us.

• What were we relieved to learn?

Much to our relief, we discovered we did not need to consider another's conception of God.

Is it even any of our business?

• If we are only able to pretend there is a Higher Power, what is promised?

Our own conception, however inadequate, was sufficient to make the approach and to effect a contact with Him.

Our concept gets more and more ‘adequate’ as growth continues. For now, even inadequacy will do just nicely. A little understanding goes a LONG way.

TOMORROW:

• What two things will we possess as soon as we are able to admit there just might be a Higher Power?
• Provided we do what?
• Is it easy to find God?
• We have found the “Realm of the Spirit” to be what?
• Who may benefit from it?

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

http://recoveredalcoholic.blogspot.com