Alcoholics Anonymous vs. other approaches: the evidence is now in

Re:Alcoholics Anonymous vs. other approaches: the evidence i... by fenwick67 on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @05:33PM (#22550996)

I've definitely heard this several times that "a higher power in AA can be anything, it can be the fire extinguisher on the wall!".

But if that were really the intent of the program then why do they have a prayer where they ask capital-G-God for help every meeting?

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Re:Alcoholics Anonymous vs. other approaches: the evidence i... by athrowaway69 on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @05:54PM (#22551212)

There is no shortage of meetings where you're expected to submit to the Christian God, where the people will be hostile to someone they find out is an atheist.

They'll still use the "your higher power can be the door knob!" bit, too.

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Re:Alcoholics Anonymous vs. other approaches: the evidence i... by daseiner1 on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @10:39PM (#22553097)

and there’s no shortage of other meetings to go to

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Re:Alcoholics Anonymous vs. other approaches: the evidence i... by NAaddict167 on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @06:09PM (#22551344)

It’s an easy reference for a lot of people to understand what spirituality means.

Remember, many people who come to meetings can lack any formal education, be homeless, completely cut off from the internet/society etc etc etc.

If I were to start talking about chakras, spiritual energy or Soto zen, they’d think I was fucking mental!

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Re:Alcoholics Anonymous vs. other approaches: the evidence i... by code_duck on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @06:43PM (#22551615)

That seems like a fairly unconvincing suggestion. I'm fairly convinced that if I was to show up at the psychologist saying that I thought a fire extinguisher was a higher power that controls the world over which I have no control they would be concerned. What would it even mean if the fire extinguisher was a higher power?

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