{"id":16133,"date":"2020-10-16T10:12:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T14:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=16133"},"modified":"2020-10-21T13:11:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T17:11:54","slug":"aa-religious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/aa-religious\/","title":{"rendered":"Is AA Religious? Finding Belief in a Higher Power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is AA religious? What is the relationship between Alcoholics Anonymous and religion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alcoholics Anonymous and religion can work well together, but it doesn&#8217;t have to be faith-based. The AA religious aspect is really just focus on a higher power beyond just yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, is AA religious? Read on to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is AA Religious? No.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>AA is not a religious organization. It demands <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/believe-in-something-bigger-than-yourself\/\">belief in a higher power<\/a>, but you can choose your own conception of what that means, whether that\u2019s a religious god or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You need only believe in some power that is greater than yourself, because, as a mere individual, you have no effective mental defense against drinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-big-book\/\">The Big Book<\/a> specifically addresses agnostics and atheists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u201cHalf of us thought we were atheists or agnostics.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cIf a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago. But we found that such codes and philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cWhen 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.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cAfter a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life\u2013or else.\u201d&nbsp;<\/li><li>Having faith is not as large a leap as you might think. \u201cDid 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&#8230;faith had been involved all the time!\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Put your prejudice aside. You haven\u2019t been able to solve your problems with your current beliefs. Why not give this new approach, which has worked for millions, a try?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you\u2019re willing to entertain the idea of a higher power, you\u2019re on your way. So, is AA religious? Not always because you can decide what kind of higher power you see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is AA religious? What is the relationship between Alcoholics Anonymous and religion? Alcoholics Anonymous and religion can work well together, but it doesn&#8217;t have to be faith-based. The AA religious aspect is really just focus on a higher power beyond just yourself. So, is AA religious? Read on to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,21,6],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-16133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-philosophy","category-spiritual","tag-alcoholics-anonymous-the-big-book","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is AA Religious? Finding Belief in a Higher Power - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alcoholics Anonymous and religion seem to come as a package deal. But is AA religious? It doesn&#039;t have to be. 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See how it works.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/aa-religious\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-16T14:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-21T17:11:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/sapiens-origin-of-monotheism.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"765\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"507\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/aa-religious\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/aa-religious\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Is AA Religious? 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