Secular(ist) Twelve-Step

The Atheist Experience has a new blog. I haven't changed it in the blogroll yet, hopefully I will shortly. I haven't been on it much yet, but one post caught my attention: Matt Dillahunty did his own take on the Twelve-Step Program. And I really loved it. He criticised it on the show before, so his post does not come as a surprise to me.

I am enthusiastic about it for a simple reason: as a still Catholic teenager, I saw plenty of alcoholics and addicts giving testimony in religion classes. It had its use and it did open the eyes of many on the danger of alcohol (or other substances), but I always found the A.A. program somewhat sinister: it is about oblivion of will and powerlessness, I always thought it was replacing the substance by another kind of addiction. Using God as a placebo, so to speak. I thought this even as a Christian and I think it might have put me off drinking: I didn't want to cure an addiction by doing the program. I find Matt's Twelve-Step more empowering.