Congrats on the sobriety and the initiative to start a non-believers group. Impressive!

"later was told can't get sober if you don't believe. " Amazing. Isn't it?? Really makes me sick actually. Tired of these fundamentalists............ Thanks for your share.

Welcome to the group!!

I have been sober for just over two years. My first days in rehab were awful, both because of withdrawals and the complication that I have Type 1 diabetes. My body had to readjust to not always being drowned in sauce, and my body's insulin requirements became very unstable for a few weeks. It was a good lesson in how much damage alcohol actually does to the body!!

As far as AA is concerned, I could find no sponsor willing to work with an atheist. I could have hidden the fact that I am a non-believer, but it just didn't seem sobriety would last long if my recovery program was based on something in which I do not believe. I came to understand the "great lie of AA," that being the passage in the preamble that states the only requirement for membership is the desire to quit drinking. There is another requirement as well that is not mentioned in the preamble -- the requirement that one possess a belief in God. It is stated in the famous 12 steps and discussed frequently in the Big Book, but not the preamble.

I, myself, was told that I shall fail in sobriety if I insist on "ignoring God." It was often uttered by someone declining to be my sponsor.

So I no longer attend AA. Avoiding AA has actually been good for me. At first, yes, the followship was extremely helpful, but it outlived its usefulness. Everyone at the meetings seems to be "stuck" in the same place -- always fighting the urge to drink. I no longer have an urge to drink. I think of alcohol so rarely that it seems counter-productive to attend a religious meeting of drunks where I can be belittled for my atheism and forced to think about alcohol.

No. I am simply moving forward with my life with the steadfast conviction that, for me, alcohol is poison and that if I ever allow so much of a drop of it to pass by my lips I will almost certainly die.

Well said and congratulations on your 36 years

That's good to hear. I didn't understand a lot of the terms you used but I got the jist of it. I wonder do they really think you need to believe or is it like soup kitchens where they preach to the needy for a meal. Anyway, it must have taken enormous inner strength to go your own and succeed. All the best for the future!