Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition

CHAPTER 4 - WE AGNOSTICS

ficiency" worked with them, we began to feel like
those who had insisted the Wrights would never fly.

Logic is great stuff. We liked it. We still like it. It
is not by chance we were given the power to reason,
to examine the evidence of our senses, and to draw
conclusions. That is one of man's magnificent at-
tributes. We agnostically inclined would not feel
satisfied with a proposal which does not lend itself to
reasonable approach and interpretation. Hence we
are at pains to tell why we think our present faith is
reasonable, why we think it more sane and logical to
believe than not to believe, why we say our former
thinking was soft and mushy when we threw up our
hands in doubt and said, "We don't know."

When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-
imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we
had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God
is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or
He isn't. What was our choice to be?

Arrived at this point, we were squarely confronted
with the question of faith. We couldn't duck the issue.
Some of us had already walked far over the Bridge of
Reason toward the desired shore of faith. The outlines
and the promise of the New Land had brought lustre
to tired eyes and fresh courage to flagging spirits.
Friendly hands had stretched out in welcome. We
were grateful that Reason had brought us so far. But
somehow, we couldn't quite step ashore. Perhaps we
had been leaning too heavily on Reason that last mile
and we did not like to lose our support.

That was natural, but let us think a little more
closely. Without knowing it, had we not been brought
to where we stood by a certain kind of faith? For did