THE GOD WORD

The “God” Word

Agnostic and Atheist Members in AA

AA is not a religious organization. Alcoholics Anonymous has only one requirement for membership and that is the desire to stop drinking.

There is room in AA for people of all shades of belief and non-belief.

Many members believe in some sort of god and we have members that come from and/or practice all sorts of religions;but also many are atheist or agnostic.

It’s important to remember that AA is not a religious organization; we have a simple idea that there is a power greater than us as individuals.

What we all have in common is that the programme helps us ﬁnd an inner strength that we were previously unaware of – where we differ is in how we identify the source.

Some people have the thought of the word God as standing for “good orderly direction”, or even “group of drunks”, but many of us believe that there is something bigger than ourselves which is helping us today.

This power may lie within some person’s religious beliefs, or it can be completely separate from any religion.

For example, one member looks at the sea and accepts that it is a power greater than him. We could ask ourselves ‘Do I believe that somehow there is a power greater than myself’.

As Bill W wrote in 1965…

“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 declares”.

Whatever you do, please don’t let someone else’s religious beliefs prevent you from ﬁnding the solution that is available to you through Alcoholics Anonymous.

For more on this subject please refer to the Conference Approved pamphlet entitled "THE GOD WORD" YOU CAN FIND IT HERE