target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_ad6adf7e-102a-54aa-920e-c2bea96dbaa9">The Only Faith You Need February 2004
Danger, Construction Ahead March 2015
A Core Of Love October 2007
Spiritual Honesty April 1985
Three Strikes, You’re In! March 2014
I, Agnostic April 2011
The Uncertainty Principle September 1995
Continental Shift April 2010
AA is a “we” program
Out of the Closet March 2015
I Got Out of the God Business January 1970
Is There Room Enough in AA? October 1987
An Atheist Asks August 2011
Without a Higher Power January 2010
Is “Agnostic” a Nasty Word? September 1969
What Are the Requirements? October 2013
Closet Atheist April 1978
Participation in service is a key component of sobriety for many members
Coincidentally Sober October 2016
Open-minded October 2016
An Atheist Lets Go June 1998
A Larger Welcome November 1996
A Few Words From an Atheist April 1985
My Search October 2016
Finding Our Way October 2012
In AA, we are one
Can an Atheist Find a Place in AA? June 1964
Practice, But Don’t Preach April 1994
We Share Common Ground October 2016
Equal Time for Atheists September 1976
Open-minded December 2013
An Unsuspected Inner Resource February 2016
One Big Tent January 2016
No Worshipping For Me October 2016
Spiritual Honesty December 2007
God On Every Page October 2016
Welcome
“Newcomers are approaching AA at the rate often of thousands yearly. They represent almost every belief and attitude imaginable. We have atheists and agnostics. We have people of nearly every race, culture and religion. In AA we are supposed to be bound together in the kinship of a common suffering. Consequently, the full individual liberty to practice any creed or principle or therapy whatever should be a first consideration for us all. Let us not, therefore, pressure anyone with our individual or even our collective views. Let us instead accord each other the respect and love that is due to every human being as he tries to make his way toward the light. Let us always try to be inclusive rather than exclusive; let us remember that each alcoholic among us is a member of AA, so long as he or she so declares.”
—Bill W., Grapevine, July 1965
The stories in this book, originally published in Grapevine, represent the shared experience of AA members who are atheists, agnostics, freethinkers or nonbelievers, who have struggled with alcoholism, yet ultimately found a common solution in AA.
Pushed to the edge of desperation by their inability to stop drinking, each finally has taken the plunge into AA—often as a last resort. Their entries into the program weren’t always graceful, as a number of the stories in this volume can attest. Yet once arrived, they generally found a warm welcome—something unexpected after years of drinking and despair.
As each came to know more about AA and its spiritual program of recovery, deep reservations surfaced, with a sense that the Fellowship might not be for them.
Chapter One explores some of these reservations and how members worked through them to keep the focus on sobriety—recognizing that without sobriety all would be lost. In the book’s first story, the writer of “The Transformation” asks a pivotal question often considered by many atheists and agnostics in AA: “Was a spiritual awakening necessary for lifelong sobriety? If I didn’t have one, was I going to drink again?” The experience shared in this chapter puts that notion to rest, as nonbelievers of varying experience share how they are able to work the program successfully, one day at a time, as reflected in the words of Bill M. in