A woman convicted over her part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot said she rejected Trump's pardon because it would be a "slap in the face to Capitol police officers."
Unfortunately, it was formed from a prayer group, and as much as some of my fellow atheists have told me that you can be an atheist and a 12-stepper (and maybe they can deal with the cognitive dissonance), there is just no legitimately non-religious interpretation of step 11. The whole “anything can be your higher power” concept I’ve been told by those atheists simply cannot conform to step 11:
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
You substitute “God” with pretty much anything non-deistic and that sentence simply does not rationally work.
I’ve always suspected that the biggest reason 12-step programs like AA do work for some people is that it’s a form of group therapy.
You can substitute for the universe, the program and people in it, or nature and I’d say it still works. Just how you frame prayer or meditation. One of the definitions of prayer is a solemn request. The purpose of having “God” in the 12 steps is to have a belief in something “greater” than yourself. To me the group of alcoholics who got me sober is something “greater” than myself because I truly couldn’t do it alone. The prayer and meditation can just be used almost as a manifesting of intention. If I pray that I be more tolerant patient and kind to those around me, than that’s more likely to be on my mind whether I’m intentionally sending that prayer to a deity, the universe, nature, or the idea of the group as a whole. I say this as a 12 stepper myself that is non religious. That being said a lot of people use God or a deity as a higher power, but just saying it’s certainly not a requirement.
No. You can’t. Because those make no sense when you rewrite it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the universe as we understood it, praying only for knowledge of its will for us and the power to carry that out.
The universe only has a will if you’re not an atheist.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the program and people in it as we understood them, praying only for knowledge of their will for us and the power to carry that out.
This only makes sense if you think praying to a group will make them force you to do something. Which is nonsense.
If you want to detach step 11 from it’s Christian roots, you cannot just substitute “God” in its wording. That yields nonsense, as you are stating correctly.
The aim of Step 11 is “knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” In non–religious terms I would call this aim “committment”.
The means of Step 11 to achieve commitment is spirituality, spirituality being a set of basic convictions that provides meaning, purpose and a sense of belonging.
A “neutral” Meta—Step 11 might be worded something like:
“We consciously develop a healthy spiritual basis for our live, gaining motivation and comittment through it.”
As any religion, philosophy, ideology or other system of basic convictions can provide this spiritual basis for an individual, the formulation of a more concrete and helpful Step 11 will differ between e.g. communists, buddhists, naturists and epicureans.
Sure sounds like it is losing its original purpose to me- to bring people closer to the Christian god, since the 12 steps were formed from a Christian prayer group.
It’s simpler than all that. Satanists would say God is just You, or some version of yourself that is all the things you wish you could be. The fact that you are there praying means you have a good idea of what needs to change, and are searching for the strength within yourself.
As I said, that makes it irrational. People like you say that, but when it actually comes to rewriting it, it makes no sense at all:
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with me as I understand myself, praying only for knowledge of my will for me and the power to carry that out.
It takes conscious effort to be in touch with your deeper thoughts and emotions, so in a sense yes. Not everything that is known to the self is known to the conscious mind. Didn’t think that would be controversial.
I think the key here, and I’m speaking from the POV of a 12-stepper, is the idea of introspection.
Literally, all I learned from 12 step was to look at myself deeply, intensely, and with honesty; learn to forgive myself for the shitty things I’ve done; learn to forgive others for the shitty things they’ve done to me, while taking responsibility for my part in whatever that may have been; and to get into the habit of practicing those things daily.
The part I think you’re missing with the quote above that you seem to be taking it literally, when in the quote itself implies that it and the idea of God in general, is to be interpreted by the reader however they see fit.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
I also think that the “sought through prayer and meditation” does not necessarily imply that one must do both, as it is speaking in the first person plural. Meaning, some people may pray without “meditating”, while others like myself may choose to meditate without “praying” and you can still say of the group “We prayed and meditated” without contradicting oneself. An “and/or” probably would’ve worked best there, but whatever.
Now, as to whether I think AA and NA are culty? Absolutely, and it’s a big reason why I stopped attending.
“And” doesn’t just imply both, that’s exactly what “and” means. It doesn’t mean either/or, it means both. I have no idea why you’re suggesting otherwise.
A ham and cheese sandwich isn’t ham or cheese, it’s both.
A husband and wife is always two people.
A horse and rider is not either a horse or a person riding a horse.
A ham and cheese sandwich isn’t ham or cheese, it’s both.
I agree.
When it’s ham and cheese sandwiches, I personally have to ask whether the speaker means there are ham sandwiches and cheese sandwiches, or just sandwiches with ham and cheese.
ETA:
A husband and wife is always two people.
Yes, but when you say “we were husbands and wives” does this imply one person is both?
I cannot imagine a scenario where someone says “I have ham and cheese sandwiches” and they mean two different types of sandwiches.
And I also do not believe that you are so stupid that you would think that was what they meant, so I have no idea why you’re pretending to be. But if it is true, congratulations on being one of the most obnoxious people on the planet.
Unfortunately, it was formed from a prayer group, and as much as some of my fellow atheists have told me that you can be an atheist and a 12-stepper (and maybe they can deal with the cognitive dissonance), there is just no legitimately non-religious interpretation of step 11. The whole “anything can be your higher power” concept I’ve been told by those atheists simply cannot conform to step 11:
You substitute “God” with pretty much anything non-deistic and that sentence simply does not rationally work.
I’ve always suspected that the biggest reason 12-step programs like AA do work for some people is that it’s a form of group therapy.
You can substitute for the universe, the program and people in it, or nature and I’d say it still works. Just how you frame prayer or meditation. One of the definitions of prayer is a solemn request. The purpose of having “God” in the 12 steps is to have a belief in something “greater” than yourself. To me the group of alcoholics who got me sober is something “greater” than myself because I truly couldn’t do it alone. The prayer and meditation can just be used almost as a manifesting of intention. If I pray that I be more tolerant patient and kind to those around me, than that’s more likely to be on my mind whether I’m intentionally sending that prayer to a deity, the universe, nature, or the idea of the group as a whole. I say this as a 12 stepper myself that is non religious. That being said a lot of people use God or a deity as a higher power, but just saying it’s certainly not a requirement.
No. You can’t. Because those make no sense when you rewrite it.
The universe only has a will if you’re not an atheist.
This only makes sense if you think praying to a group will make them force you to do something. Which is nonsense.
¯_(ツ)_/¯ Hey, I guess I’m wrong, but it’s been working for me when nothing else has.
If it works for you, great. As I said a while ago.
If you want to detach step 11 from it’s Christian roots, you cannot just substitute “God” in its wording. That yields nonsense, as you are stating correctly.
The aim of Step 11 is “knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” In non–religious terms I would call this aim “committment”.
The means of Step 11 to achieve commitment is spirituality, spirituality being a set of basic convictions that provides meaning, purpose and a sense of belonging.
A “neutral” Meta—Step 11 might be worded something like:
“We consciously develop a healthy spiritual basis for our live, gaining motivation and comittment through it.”
As any religion, philosophy, ideology or other system of basic convictions can provide this spiritual basis for an individual, the formulation of a more concrete and helpful Step 11 will differ between e.g. communists, buddhists, naturists and epicureans.
You’re basically saying the 12 steps only work for atheists if they aren’t the actual 12 steps. You do realize that, right?
Depends on your definition of “actual”.
I totally agree that the original 12 steps cannot work for anyone not believing in an Abrahamitic god.
I’d say that you need the actual steps for other people, i.e. the steps the AA are really taking, not the steps they claim to take.
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If you are an atheist, Step 11 makes no sense if you don’t substitute “God” and it also makes no sense if you do.
So if you want to acknowledge a hard truth, acknowledge that is an issue.
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Yes, as I have said to others, I understand that if you totally rewrite Step 11 it can reply to atheists.
But to an atheist, the lines are in no way hazy between prayer and meditation.
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Yes, yet again, I understand that if you rewrite things, they change.
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Sure sounds like it is losing its original purpose to me- to bring people closer to the Christian god, since the 12 steps were formed from a Christian prayer group.
It’s simpler than all that. Satanists would say God is just You, or some version of yourself that is all the things you wish you could be. The fact that you are there praying means you have a good idea of what needs to change, and are searching for the strength within yourself.
As I said, that makes it irrational. People like you say that, but when it actually comes to rewriting it, it makes no sense at all:
Dunno what you’re on about, makes complete sense to me. Just requires some mental flexibility.
Really? You pray to yourself? You don’t have conscious contact with yourself?
It takes conscious effort to be in touch with your deeper thoughts and emotions, so in a sense yes. Not everything that is known to the self is known to the conscious mind. Didn’t think that would be controversial.
“In a sense.” i.e. you have to make some really convoluted interpretations to make it work.
It’s fine that you don’t understand. I know plenty of non-religious people who were able to find their own meaning in those words
Yes, I realize non-religious people can accept things that aren’t rational.
I think the key here, and I’m speaking from the POV of a 12-stepper, is the idea of introspection.
Literally, all I learned from 12 step was to look at myself deeply, intensely, and with honesty; learn to forgive myself for the shitty things I’ve done; learn to forgive others for the shitty things they’ve done to me, while taking responsibility for my part in whatever that may have been; and to get into the habit of practicing those things daily.
The part I think you’re missing with the quote above that you seem to be taking it literally, when in the quote itself implies that it and the idea of God in general, is to be interpreted by the reader however they see fit.
I also think that the “sought through prayer and meditation” does not necessarily imply that one must do both, as it is speaking in the first person plural. Meaning, some people may pray without “meditating”, while others like myself may choose to meditate without “praying” and you can still say of the group “We prayed and meditated” without contradicting oneself. An “and/or” probably would’ve worked best there, but whatever.
Now, as to whether I think AA and NA are culty? Absolutely, and it’s a big reason why I stopped attending.
“And” doesn’t just imply both, that’s exactly what “and” means. It doesn’t mean either/or, it means both. I have no idea why you’re suggesting otherwise.
A ham and cheese sandwich isn’t ham or cheese, it’s both.
A husband and wife is always two people.
A horse and rider is not either a horse or a person riding a horse.
You must know this.
I agree.
When it’s ham and cheese sandwiches, I personally have to ask whether the speaker means there are ham sandwiches and cheese sandwiches, or just sandwiches with ham and cheese.
ETA:
Yes, but when you say “we were husbands and wives” does this imply one person is both?
I cannot imagine a scenario where someone says “I have ham and cheese sandwiches” and they mean two different types of sandwiches.
And I also do not believe that you are so stupid that you would think that was what they meant, so I have no idea why you’re pretending to be. But if it is true, congratulations on being one of the most obnoxious people on the planet.