A Spiritual Agnostic
“We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colours, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves.
“Instead, we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation. We talked of intolerance, while we were intolerant ourselves. We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees. We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.”
© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 49-50
In my early recovery I often confused religion with spirituality and condemned the individual actions of religious people.
“Look at the Irish or the Middle East and see what religion does to people.” I would say.
Slowly but surely I began to realise that ’their’ religion was not my spirituality. As I listened to other members of Alcoholics Anonymous I began to see that;
- I could be spiritual without being religious
- I could be religious without being spiritual
- I could be both spiritual and religious
- I could define my own concept of a Higher Power and utilise the universal spiritual principles of mankind.
This worked for me and continues to work 26 years later – One Day at a Time.
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