Faith IS a very powerful force, Sidney, but it does not have to imply faith in God. Faith in the self also taps unseen power to accomplish things.
For example, the entire notion of AA-type self-help groups is that you surrender your power to a "higher" one. That has always been difficult for atheists and agnostics, and is perhaps one of the reasons that there are absolutely no statistics put out by AA about how successful their program is on a percentage basis. (I don't really believe it is very successful at all, when you consider how many people come and are not attracted, or come and relapse and ultimately fail.)
At the same time, there are self-help groups for alcoholism and cocaine addiction based on RATIONAL thought processes. The guide book for one of them is called the SMALL book, which is obviously a parody of AA, but really makes sense, because it argues that to stop using drugs or alcohol, you need to believe in YOURSELF, and simply stop the behavior and rebuild your life, and that YOU have the internal power to do this if you believe that you do.
I think surrendering your power is a bad thing, obviously. I especially think that it should logically be unconstitutional that people are forced by court order into "higher power" based recovery programs, when others are available, because this compromises freedom of religion. On the other hand, there are people for whom AA and its associated programs have worked, and that is very good. I just think there should always be choices, and that rationality and the power of humans on their own should be kept in mind, as well. |
