Guest guest Posted October 10, 2000 Report Share Posted October 10, 2000 AA's Higher Power FBI Profile _____________________ all facts about " Him " were offered by bill in Big Book and 12-steps Bill tells us god is of our understanding, he cant help himself but to fill in the blanks for us a s to how god works for us though. i guess if my understanding of god is one which doesn't restore sanity, listen to my prayers and removed defects, i cant do steps. these were found in a scan of a few chapters, it would take a week to pull all the specific ideals expressed to describe how god of " our " understanding is, and how this god of " our " understanding will work for us. bills use of " we " in big book is so prolific, there is no way he sat down and to do a consensus of all the " 100's " of members of what they believed or thought of god, or what actualy worked for them. the more i read of his writings, the more im convinced he used them in many cases as a prop to validate his stream of consciousness. as he was writing restores sanity listens to our prayers removes defects is a living creator and whom we are its children is male has conscious contact with us has relationships with us, has a will intended us to carry. Does for us what we could not do for ourselves. he is a " Creative Intelligence " " Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things " He doesn't make too hard terms with those who seek Him the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive is a All Powerful, Guiding, Creative Intelligence we are " intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation " is the Spirit of the Universe Presence of Infinite Power and Love Slander of Non Believers _____________________ from the below passages, mainly from " we agnostics " we can see from the language used the disdain bill wilson had for non believers. here are some of the themes expressed in describing agnostics in this one small chapter. imagine how he must have felt about atheists. " prejudiced " evasive biased unreasonable spiritually obsolete ignorant touchy vain illogical " less " sane narrow in vision/backward thinking " soft and mushy " thinkers worshippers of " people, sentiment, things, money, and ourselves " dishonest " doomed to an alcoholic death " " But after a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life -- or else " " Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness " " handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice " Below is the actual text from BB --------------- Yes, we of agnostic temperament have had these thoughts and experiences. Let us make haste to reassure you. We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results, And it means, of course, that we are going to talk about God. Here difficulty arises with agnostics. Many times we talk to a new man and watch his hope rise as we discuss his alcoholic problems and explain our fellowship. But his face falls when we speak of spiritual matters, especially when we mention God, for we have re-opened a subject which our man thought he had neatly evaded or entirely ignored. To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face. But it isn't so difficult. About half our original fellowship were of exactly that type. At first some of us tried to avoid the issue, hoping against hope we were not true alcoholics. But after a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life -- or else. Perhaps it is going to be that way with you. But cheer up, something like half of us thought we were atheists or agnostics. Our experience shows that you need not be disconcerted. ------------- we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice. Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things make us bristle with antagonism. This sort of thinking had to be abandoned. Though some of us resisted, we found no great difficulty in casting aside such feelings. Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one else will prejudiced for as long as some of us were. ------------------ we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all. Rather vain of us, wasn't it? --- This world of ours has made more material progress in the last century than in all the millenniums which went before. Almost everyone knows the reason. Students of ancient history tell us that the intellect of men in those days was equal to the best of today. Yet in ancient times, material progress was painfully slow. The spirit of modern scientific inquiry, research and invention was almost unknown. In the realm of the material, men's minds were fettered by superstition, tradition, and all sort of fixed ideas. Some of the contemporaries of Columbus thought a round earth preposterous. Others came near putting Galileo to death for his astronomical heresies. We asked ourselves this: Are not some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as were the ancients about the realm of the material? -------------- When we saw others solve their problems by a simple reliance upon the Spirit of the Universe, we had to stop doubting the power of God. Our ideas did not work. But the God idea did. --------------- We agnostics and atheists were sticking to the idea that self- sufficiency would solve our problems. When others showed us that " God-sufficiency " worked with them, we began to feel like those who had insisted the s would never fly. --------- Logic is great stuff. We like it. We still like it. It is not by chance we were given the power to reason, to examine the evidence of our sense, and to draw conclusions. That is one of man's magnificent attributes. We agnostically inclined would not feel satisfied with a proposal which does not lend itself to reasonable approach and interpretation. Hence we are at pains to tell why we think our present faith is reasonable, why we think it more sane and logical to believe than not to believe, why we say our former thinking was soft and mushy when we threw up our hands in doubt and said, " We don't know. " -------- did we not have confidence in our ability to think? What was that but a sort of faith? Yes, we had been faithful, abjectly faithful to the God of Reason. So, in one way or another, we discovered that faith had been involved all the time! We found, too, that we had been worshippers. What a state of mental goose-flesh that used to bring on! Had we not variously worshipped people, sentiment, things, money, and ourselves? ----------------- We can only clear the ground a bit. If our testimony helps sweep away prejudice, enables you to think honestly, encourages you to search diligently within yourself, then, if you wish, you can join us on the Broad Highway. With this attitude you cannot fail. the consciousness of your belief is sure to come to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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