Good morning and welcome back!

Today we are at Chapter 4 - We Agnostics, Page 44.

We should start by defining some terms. "Agnostic" is comprised of
two parts: "A" which is the Greek prefix for "Without" and "gnostic"
which is "Knowledge." With this in mind our definition of "Agnostic"
is: Without Knowledge of God.

Although used interchangeably, "agnostic" and "atheist" mean two very
different things. To be "Atheist" is to claim that there is no God,
as opposed to being without knowledge of God (agnostic).

How many times have we seen lists of questions that will allow you
to diagnose your own alcoholism? Ten, twenty, fifty question each?
Starting at paragraph 1 on page 44, we find that there are two
questions:

Question 1: "If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit
entirely, or

Question 2: "if when drinking, you have little control over the
amount you take, you are probably alcoholic."

Reading through to the top of page 45 several powerful statements
are made: "Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not
sufficient; they failed utterly."

What does that mean? What does that tell us about willpower? About
human resources (Fellowship) alone? About our ability to win in hand
to hand combat with the alcoholic obsession?

At the top of paragraph 1: "Lack of power, that was our dilemma
(Powerlessness). We had to find a power by which we could live, and
it had to be a POWER GREATER THAN OURSELVES. Obviously. But where
and how were we to find this Power?"

Now we come to the purpose of the Big Book and the desired result of
the AA program: "Well, that's exactly what this book is about. Its
main object [and the object of the AA Program] is to enable you to
find a Power greater than yourself WHICH WILL SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM
(emphasis added)."

Let's turn back for a second to The Foreword to the first edition.
The second sentence says the following:

"TO SHOW OTHER ALCOHOLICS PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED IS THE
MAIN PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK." (This sentence was written in ALL CAPS
in the first edition of the book).

To recover from alcoholism, we need to find a Power greater than
ourselves which will solve our problem. This book has all of the
directions necessary to bring about permanent recovery from
alcoholism, which is our common problem. The answers are within the
text and throughout the coming weeks we will continue to delve into
the solution.

One of the things I was thinking about regarding this chapter is the
name "We Agnostics", not "The Agnostics" - I mean, it's almost if
they assumed that everyone was an agnostic. Anyone care to explore
why they named this chapter the way they did?

With our next post we will continue on Page 46. Have a great day!

Jim

Weekend Big Book Studies with Jim & Dave - visit:
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