A Dubious Path

We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion. We have learned that whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions. People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about. Actually, we used to have no reasonable conception whatever. We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves. - Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 49

I think it would be important at his point to ask ourselves just how we atheists and agnostics came to faith. I love that line about "cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs." That was a great amusing hobby of mine, an ego feeder for sure, but also a way of whistling past the graveyard. Keep in mind that my decision to reject God was not based on any facts or study. I merely decided that such was the case and I surrounded myself with people who reinforced that mindset. As I've said earlier, people who hate God and people who love God are both passionate about spiritual things. These are people for whom the issue of God and religion triggers either disproportionate hostility or an equally strong desire to share what they have found. Neither is lukewarm.

When I was in the former category it was not the people preaching to me that had any effect. In fact, I found them repulsive and, rather than winning my heart, they hardened it. Instead, it was the people who said nothing but rather showed God by the "stability, happiness and usefulness" in their lives. I wanted it for myself but I did not want it in they was they obtained it. To do so wold be to admit that I had been living my life based on an erroneous assumption and a malevolent one at that.

In order to effective in carrying the message, we must remember that "cheerfulness makes for usefulness" and that we ought to have stable lives. Remember that the Third Step prayer asks that our difficulties be relieved in order to demonstrate God's power. If we sit in meetings talking about the ongoing chaos in  our lives without sharing how much more stable we had become, we are carrying a very dubious message.