Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Two

"Came to believe that a Power greater than
ourselves could restore us to sanity."

THE moment they read Step Two, most A.A. newcom-
ers are confronted with a dilemma, sometimes a serious
one. How often have we heard them cry out, "Look what
you people have done to us! You have convinced us that we
are alcoholics and that our lives are unmanageable. Hav-
ing reduced us to a state of absolute helplessness, you now
declare that none but a Higher Power can remove our ob-
session. Some of us won't believe in God, others can't, and
still others who do believe that God exists have no faith
whatever He will perform this miracle. Yes, you've got
us over the barrel, all right—but where do we go from
here?"

Let's look first at the case of the one who says he won't
believe—the belligerent one. He is in a state of mind which
can be described only as savage. His whole philosophy of
life, in which he so gloried, is threatened. It's bad enough,
he thinks, to admit alcohol has him down for keeps. But
now, still smarting from that admission, he is faced with
something really impossible. How he does cherish the
thought that man, risen so majestically from a single cell
in the primordial ooze, is the spearhead of evolution and
therefore the only god that his universe knows! Must he
renounce all this to save himself ?