Can Atheists be in a 12 step program?

Question

If there is no belief in a higher power than self, is there some other way you all might use to help you get over being addicted to whatever? Or do you think that since this life is all there is you might as well abuse your bodies and minds until you die and go to be worm food?
This is an honest question and I would like some intelligent answers, not the usual believer bashing please.

To those who think that this was not an intelligent question, I just wondered what the majority of Atheists would do about it SHOULD they have this problem and want to change it. I did not say that Atheists were any more likely to be afflicted or whatever.
As a Christian I also am blatantly against the philosophy of AA, in that one can be recovered - period. I don't believe in perpetuating reliance on something such as a program.

Answer 1

Certainly ! I've been clean & sober nearly 20 years, and have a few friends in AA who are atheists. One of them uses the combined sobriety of his home group as his "higher power' - another uses a Jack-in-the-box antennae ball (seriously) - still another claims Frank Sinatra as his higher power (ya' gotta admit - ol' blue eyes is pretty tough. . . :)

The reasoning is this : your own best thinking kept you pursuing alcohol in the hopes of relief. Ergo, get a higher power that's anything BUT you. (I don't agree or disagree with this statement, it's just something I've heard bandied about.)

If you have an problem with addiction, this does'nt mean you are a weak -willed person. Science is only just now able to isolate the genetic path for addictive disorders. Perhaps one day there will be a pill or vaccination.

Meantime, if you are still skeptical - next time you have diarrhea, try using 'will power'. - :)

(I can't tell you how they get results with Jack and Frank - but they've each been sober over 15 years, go figger. . . :)

From AA's book "12 Steps and 12 Tradtions" -

"First, AA does not demand that you believe anything. All of it's 12 steps are but suggestions."

I've also some friends there that came in atheists or agnostics, and "found God" and/or re-connected to the religious paths of their youth - including fundie Baptist .

*bless* SJ

Answer 2

12 Step Program For Atheists

Answer 3

Technically, the only requirement to belong to a 12 step group is a desire to "quit" doing whatever it is you're trying to quit. So yes, an atheist can be a member of such a group. It is difficult to come up with a higher power, however. Some people make the group as a whole their higher power, some make mother nature or the earth or the ocean, etc. their higher power. Anyway, I hope this answer was helpful.

Answer 4

You can be an athiest and go into a 12-step program, but as you mention, the second step means that you cannot successfully come out of it as an athiest. I think you'll also find that Christianity's god is the only higher power accepted in most groups, though certainly not all.

Since I am not well-learned in such techniques, I can't tell you if this is a founded concept, or simply a way of converting people, as many atheists seem to claim. But I do know that many 12-step programs work for many people, so you have to take it all in stride.

Answer 5

I dont believe that you have to hand over power to some higher entity in order to overcome addiction
and just because this life is all there is doesnt mean you should abuse your body .... how does that logically follow at all? In fact, if you believe this life is all there is it makes more sense to treat your body well to ensure its longevity

Leaning on your god may help some people overcome addiction. Other people would lean on other things - spouse, family, friends etc. Meditation...etc.
As a side note -

12 step programs simply dont work
longevity studies have shown that the percentage of people who stay off alcohol with 12 step and the percentage of people who stay off alcohol without it is exactly the same (after 12 months) - about 5% incidentally

Answer 6

I am an athiest and do not abuse my body in any way.

Not all athiests are self-indulging, self-hurting individuals that "live in the now" by being addicted to drugs/alcohol or whatever it is you may be implying.

Athiesm is not wrong, in fact it is catching on in today's world as being FAR MORE acceptable than in the past. I think people are just starting to believe in science and take that as the all-knowing truth. When we approach something from a scientific stand-point, we can determine whether it is logical or not and that is what we see.

I also believe that the younger generations are being turned on to addictive products, which can have extremely negative effects on the brain. Marijuana for example messes with the levels of seratonin in your brain, ultimately changing the highest levels of happiness you can feel and bringing them down. Perhaps they fall into this downward spiral of depression and see the idea of heaven too much of a positive fantasy, and adopt athiesm as their own belief.

Ideals can be contagious.

Answer 7

Yes. However, there is a secular (non theistic) alternative to the 12 Step program. It's called Rational Recovery:

http://rational.org/

Unlike the 12 Steppers, the RRs don't view addiction as a disease, they view it as a set of learned destructive behaviors that can be unlearned and replaced with constructive ones. This is the reason they do not recognize a higher power, they stress that the addict must make rational choices to change his life.

Rational Recovery is based on Albert Ellis' school of Rationalism.

http://www.rebt.org/


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Answer 8

Of course anyone can be a part of the 12 step program as long as one may have their own higher power such as the higher self that dwells within us all.This higher self within us all is the closest we will get to the nature of true divinity and so it would be a very wise move to bring it forth and to develop it to the up most of our being.This is the nature of the soul.Man himself is an emerging God and is the temple of the one divine spirit.

Answer 9

Yep, if you read the big book of AA there is an entire chapter dedicated to the agnostic (yes I am aware of the difference between agnostic and atheist). I have many sober friends in AA who struggle with the concept of a higher power and openly share about this in meetings. One interesting experience a friend shared is she did not believe in a higher power and shared this with her sponsor who took her to the beach. She stood at the shoreline and was instructed to 'stop the waves'. When she said conceeded she couldn't she shared this is when she believed in a higher power- NOT TO SAY this will happen to you. A Higher Power is easy to intellectualize which is something many people do- but remember it takes a stronger person to have faith than not to. (It took me 3 months of sobriety to finally come to believe in and conceptualize my higher power). You can even make the collective sobriety of AA members a higher power (a power greater than yourself is all it is), the wind, the waves, your sponsor's sobriety, the fact all of your antics while intoxicated didn't kill you when you know they should have (that was what brought me to my higher power). Remember the fact that a higher power is YOUR CONCEPTUALIZATION- I've heard some interesting descriptions of people's higher powers trust me.... rock on and keep on with the 12 steps.

Answer 10

Atheist are probably the ones running the 12 step programs because we know that god isn't going to help us, so we must help each other, atheist do not abuse their bodies, the majority of us are against drugs and things of that sort because atheist like science which makes us research what happens to our bodies when we add unknown substances, so yes atheist can go into 12 step programs.