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WAVE: Big Book Study with Corey Session Nine - We Agnostics Part 1 · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  All right, guys, this is the Wave Book Study, and this is Corey.
• 0:08
  When we are in page 44, we agnostics.
• 0:12
  Um, But I think this is one of the best readings, um, spiritual readings, this chapter.
• 0:19
  Probably think anything that I've ever read.
• 0:21
  I mean, I'm not saying I've read a lot either.
• 0:23
  But, um, I think it's interesting, you know, how that it unfolds and breaks us down in a way.
• 0:29
  And just in the name, right?
• 0:32
  So, like, agnostic is pretty much like ignorant, um, with without knowing, if you break it down into the old Latin words, I think it's at AG, I think, you know, it could be mistaken as we and Gnostic is not knowing, so we don't know.
• 0:46
  And it's we agnostics.
• 0:48
  And, you know, it's interesting in this book.
• 0:50
  There's no chapter that says like we believers.
• 0:52
  Right.
• 0:53
  There's no chapter that says, because I could be agnostic about a lot of things.
• 0:57
  I could be analystic about my job and I could be honest about how things are going.
• 1:03
  I just don't know.
• 1:04
  You know, I don't have full faith in everything sometimes and it's hard.
• 1:07
  And, you know, so I come into this thing and, you know, so to open to all rears.
• 1:11
  Not just people that are agnostically inclined or atheists or whatever.
• 1:15
  Because I've always felt some sort of agnostic here, gnostic there.
• 1:25
  Anyway, so, I mean, we just got done with more about chapter more about alcoholism and showing pretty much that.
• 1:32
  The only thing we have is, well, let's, I'll root it real quick.
• 1:37
  I don't have my book.
• 1:38
  So this book has has no markings in it, which is cool.
• 1:41
  I had some time in between 2 different projects and to sit down for an hour and do this, but I didn't have a book that hadn't been marked up and page numbered over here.
• 1:52
  So, luckily for you, we might not be jumping around as much.
• 1:56
  But on the 43, the last page or more about alcoholism.
• 1:59
  The last paragraph of it says the alcoholic at certain times has no effect of mental defense against the 1st drink.
• 2:06
  except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense.
• 2:12
  His defense.
• 2:14
  Must, must come from a higher power.
• 2:17
  So my defense must go from a higher power.
• 2:19
  Well, I'd imagine we agnostics is so kind of gets into that.
• 2:23
  So, starting on page 44 says in the preceding chapters, you have learned something of alcoholism.
• 2:31
  We hope you we hope we have made a clear distinction between the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic.
• 2:39
  And I think we've made that clear distinction over and over.
• 2:42
  And this is underline, and so in one of some of my books, but I would suggest underline, because this is a, this is like the easiest step one.
• 2:51
  to explain to somebody.
• 2:54
  So I highlight, underline it, if when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely.
• 3:01
  Or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take.
• 3:04
  And this is what the book says, not me.
• 3:06
  You are probably alcoholic.
• 3:09
  So, you know, it's funny, you know, people are like, you know, you can be the only one that can judge you out.
• 3:13
  Well, the book is almost calling you an alcoholic too, if that's the case.
• 3:16
  So back to the text.
• 3:18
  It says, if that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness, which only.
• 3:22
  I have, which only circled in my books as well, a spiritual experience will conquer.
• 3:29
  To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic, such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as means disaster.
• 3:38
  especially if he is an alcoholic or the hopeless variety.
• 3:41
  I think hopeless should be underlined right there because hopeless is very important.
• 3:46
  And underline this next sentence or highlight it with whatever you got.
• 3:50
  And I would probably put a little page marker because it kind of directs back into page 25.
• 3:56
  Pretty much there's no, you know, because it gives me on page 25,
• 4:01
  It gives me an example of, you know, there's no middle of the road solution.
• 4:05
  through either it's blottering out, blotting out the conscious of our intolerable situation as best we could or accept spiritual help.
• 4:12
  It says this to be almost to the exact effect right here on 44.
• 4:18
  To be doomed to an alcoholic death, and like, I'll call it death doesn't mean you have to die.
• 4:24
  It's not, and you know, it doesn't mean you have to go to prison either.
• 4:28
  It's not jails and institutions.
• 4:30
  Alcohol death can be a lot of different things.
• 4:33
  Could be me sitting on a corner for the rest of my life just getting $20 just to get a handle of liquor every day.
• 4:39
  Just to survive.
• 4:42
  Says to be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis or not always easy, alternatives to faith, face.
• 4:50
  But it isn't so difficult about half our original fellowship or of exactly that type.
• 4:55
  At 1st some of us tried to avoid the issue.
• 4:58
  hoping against hope we were not true alcoholics.
• 5:01
  But after a while, we had to face the fact that we must, so Circle must, find a spiritual basis over life or else.
• 5:09
  Or what else is.
• 5:11
  Perhaps it is going to be that way with you, but cheer up.
• 5:15
  Something like half of us thought we were atheists or agnostics.
• 5:18
  Our experience says that you need not be discurtained.
• 5:22
  And this, you know, so I would, I would highlight to the next page to the end of that sentence, maybe to the, no, the next 2 sentences.
• 5:34
  Maybe all of it, just pilot it all because all this is important.
• 5:37
  It really is.
• 5:38
  It says if a mere code of morals and better philosophy life are sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us have recovered long ago.
• 5:47
  So just me saying, hey, you know, it's probably the right thing to do for my family, for my job, for my kids.
• 5:53
  Well, for my life, um, health even, right?
• 5:58
  That says right here, you know, that, you know, I would have recovered a long time ago.
• 6:03
  Then it goes on the same page, top of page 45.
• 6:06
  But we found such codes and philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried.
• 6:12
  I could wish to be moral.
• 6:14
  We could wish to be philosophically comforted.
• 6:16
  In fact, like, and philosophically comforted, right?
• 6:19
  You know?
• 6:20
  I could be.
• 6:22
  It's interesting because, like, philosoph- I could wish to be philosophically comforted from books, from self-help things.
• 6:29
  I could wish to be moral.
• 6:32
  I could wish just to not cheat on that role again, right?
• 6:35
  Wish to not do this, would not do this.
• 6:38
  Put my hands on another person.
• 6:40
  Says in fact, we could will these things with all our might, but the needed power wasn't there.
• 6:46
  Our human resources is marshaled by the will were not sufficient.
• 6:52
  They failed otherly.
• 6:53
  So I would highlight that that whole last paragraph is very important.
• 7:02
  And our human resources brought in together, marshaled, by the, by the will, were not sufficient.
• 7:09
  They failed utterly.
• 7:11
  So it says lack of power that was her dilemma.
• 7:14
  We had to find a power which we could live.
• 7:17
  So I would circle to live right there.
• 7:19
  And it had to be a power greater than ourselves, obviously.
• 7:23
  But where would and how were we to find this power?
• 7:26
  And I have, I would circle this next sentence.
• 7:30
  Well, that's exactly what this book is about.
• 7:32
  It's main object.
• 7:34
  So main objects, a circle main object is enabled you to find a power greater than yourselves, which will solve your problem, a circle problem.
• 7:41
  So I'd have all that highlight in whatever color you, all that stuff is, uh, very important.
• 7:48
  It's kind of like the whole basis of this.
• 7:52
  Um, this is, that means we've written a book which we believe to be as spiritual as well as moral.
• 7:56
  And it means, of course, that we're going to be talking about God.
• 8:00
  Here, difficulty arises with agnostics.
• 8:04
  Many times we talk to a new man and watches hope rise as we discuss his alcoholic problems and explain our fellowship.
• 8:10
  But his face falls when we speak on, speak of spiritual matters, especially when we mention God, for we have reopened a subject that our man thought he had neatly evaded, entirely ignored.
• 8:21
  And, um, you know, however you feel about that right there is however you feel and wherever you're at.
• 8:28
  But, uh, If it was, if it was enough before, why are we here right now, right? If a mirror code of morals and philosophical convictions was enough.
• 8:43
  Then just stop drinking, right?
• 8:46
  If it's that easy.
• 8:47
  But I think it's though, I think we're talking about more.
• 8:51
  It says we know how he feels.
• 8:54
  We have shared his honest doubt and prejudice.
• 8:56
  Some of us have been vilely anti-religious.
• 8:59
  To others.
• 9:00
  The word God brought up a particular idea of him with someone who tried to impress them during childhood.
• 9:08
  And so I grew up in churches and, uh, yeah, my family did and I, uh,
• 9:16
  But then none of that worked.
• 9:18
  You know, I would, I didn't feel comforted in there.
• 9:22
  You know, like when I saw a cool song would come on, you know, you get the, like the butterflies or whatever, but besides that, you know, I mean, but at the end of it, like, you know, while we were going to church drunk.
• 9:35
  Not we, me and my friends, because my parents would make us go to church the next day when we were 15 and 16 years old.
• 9:44
  You know, so but my idea with him was maybe it works for other people, but it's probably not going to work for me.
• 9:52
  I didn't know why.
• 9:54
  I probably had reasons.
• 9:55
  I probably said reasons.
• 9:57
  Because on the say, perhaps we would rejected this particular consumption because it seemed inadequate.
• 10:04
  With the rejection, we imagined we had abandoned the gun idea entirely.
• 10:09
  We were we were bothered with the thought that faith and dependence on a power beyond ourselves was somewhat weak, even cowardly. And, you know, it was interesting because, like, you know, you put me around the right person, and I wouldn't talk about God, and they would talk about not believing in God.
• 10:26
  And I would agree.
• 10:26
  Put me on the round, the other right person and talking about God, and I would say, I believe it's dependent on how I needed to suit you.
• 10:34
  I wasn't, I didn't have any courage as a man, you know?
• 10:38
  I would disregard to what I was adapting to in my life and whatever I needed to, to please the audience I had.
• 10:47
  Um, and it was, I mean, you know, of course, like when I was jammed up in jails and back of cop cars and breaking up and, you know, this happening or this happened or getting a breakup, this happening and like getting into some problems at work.
• 11:03
  Of course, I'm going to pray.
• 11:05
  But like, I'm not, you know, that was the only times.
• 11:10
  Yeah, I was talking about prayer.
• 11:13
  It says, we look upon the world of wearing individuals, wearing theological systems and an exclipable calamity with deep skepticism.
• 11:23
  We let to ask it, as many individuals who claim to be godly.
• 11:26
  How could supreme how could a supreme being have anything to do with it all?
• 11:31
  And I think this is important.
• 11:33
  So please under on this next sentence and who could comprehend a supreme being anyhow?
• 11:38
  Who can't? I mean, I can't.
• 11:43
  And that's the cool thing about it is like, you know, that, it's a really interesting thing when we start getting into it because everybody wants to, to some form or fashion, explain their supreme being because they need to have their supreme being.
• 11:59
  If you need to believe in their supreme being, you can, but they don't like your supreme being if you got a different one.
• 12:05
  It's a really interesting deal.
• 12:07
  And it says in yet in other moments, we found ourselves thinking when enchanted by Starlight Knight, who that made all this.
• 12:16
  There was a feeling of awe and wonder but it was fleeting and soon lost.
• 12:20
  And if you remember in chapter one, Bill Story.
• 12:24
  It talks really on the 1st page.
• 12:28
  I think I kind of talked about this where we were going through it, but we're going to talk about it again.
• 12:33
  It says on page one.
• 12:36
  It says, when we landed in England.
• 12:39
  I visited Winchester Cathedral. Much mood.
• 12:44
  And so like, this is much moved with a comma and like, you know, it goes on to, um, in Lois's book.
• 12:53
  She talks about how Bill's experience was very, you know, he had, when it was in very depth and he had a very spiritual experience at this Winchester Cathedral.
• 13:03
  Because then it says, and then it says, I wandered outside.
• 13:07
  My attention was called by a dog roll on an old tombstone.
• 13:12
  And so like, I think about this statement right here and it says that feeling was all and wonder, but it was fleeting and soon lost.
• 13:20
  I think about that moment for him of in, think about different moments for me and having these experiences and then, Church lets out, where I go about my day.
• 13:33
  I hear a song, whatever it is, man.
• 13:36
  There's a feeling of all wonder.
• 13:38
  It says that, and that was, but it was fleeting and soon lost.
• 13:42
  Yes, we have agnostic temperament.
• 13:44
  I've had these fault and experiences.
• 13:46
  Let's make haste to reassure you, we found that it's, and this, then the rest of this needs to be, uh, on highlighted in pink right here.
• 13:55
  Because it's a promise.
• 13:58
  And it says we found that as soon as we were able to, you can even like number these 2 because it's going to go on a little bit, but lay aside prejudice is one.
• 14:09
  Express even a willingness. So willingness is too.
• 14:13
  To believe in a power rather than ourselves, we commence to get results.
• 14:18
  So I get results right after that.
• 14:20
  That's true, I do.
• 14:21
  I've felt that and I've been a part of that.
• 14:24
  Even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend.
• 14:31
  That power, which is God.
• 14:34
  Sorry.
• 14:36
  Michael's gonna like that, so he can put it as a little thing about making fun of me, a coffin, and anyways, much to our relief, we discover we need not to consider another conception of God.
• 14:48
  So that needs to be underlined right there.
• 14:51
  So I don't have to consider your conception.
• 14:53
  And the other side of that is you don't need to consider, you don't need to push your conception on me either.
• 15:01
  If it didn't work before, why are you so different?
• 15:04
  You know, I think it's cool that like, you know, we're all kind of like, these random people.
• 15:11
  And some very important figures in my life, like my mom and dad.
• 15:16
  People that have been close to me have tried to impress and pawn some of these things to me.
• 15:22
  They didn't work for them, so why would it work for you?
• 15:25
  of just doing that.
• 15:26
  That's why going through the work is so important.
• 15:29
  Yes, I can, I think there's a very interesting fact that, like, you know, we talked about it on page 19.
• 15:36
  of why that makes sense to some degree, says, but the act problem drinkers found that the solution is promptly armed with facts about himself can generally win the confidence of another within a few hours, right?
• 15:48
  So it says that, but like, I don't need to consider your conception.
• 15:54
  You don't need to push it on somebody.
• 15:56
  My significant other.
• 15:57
  When she came into this deal, a woman had told her that she must believe in Jesus or she's not going to sponsor.
• 16:07
  And she came back to me.
• 16:09
  And she said, you know, I don't think this is right, and I think, oh, this is not cool.
• 16:16
  And this is not what I signed up for.
• 16:18
  And I said, well, that's cool because that's not right.
• 16:21
  And it's not what you signed up for because that's not this program.
• 16:25
  That's not the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
• 16:28
  So, it says much to our relief, we discover we need not to consider another conception of God.
• 16:34
  Our own conception, however inadequate was sufficient, was sufficient.
• 16:40
  That's a big word, so I'd circle that to make the approach and affect the con and con affect the contact with him.
• 16:46
  And you highlight the rest of this in pink if you're highlighting it, don't matter if you're not or not.
• 16:51
  As soon as we admitted the possible existence of a creative intelligence, the spirit of the universe underline the totality of things, we began to be possessed of a new sensor power in direction.
• 17:04
  So, That's interesting.
• 17:07
  So I like when I go into these different rooms and they're like, you know, I'm powerless.
• 17:12
  But it says I got a new sense of power and direction.
• 17:15
  Provided we took other simple steps.
• 17:18
  So maybe they're not taking other simple steps, and they're just power of several life, says this is my significant other's favorite sentence in this book, and it's one of mine too.
• 17:27
  Says we found that God does not make 2 harder terms with those who seek him.
• 17:33
  And what does seeking look like for me?
• 17:37
  And the realm of things, I mean, anything from this to calling somebody that I'm checking on to being a part of my family, to go into a meeting, to be of service to my family, to just going to my job.
• 17:52
  You know, so like, well, I'm a part of life, and my brother, if I believe that I'm just another, we're all kids have got, then I'm just interacting with God's kids, and I'm trying to be a service to God's kids.
• 18:07
  So that's me seeking God through people, through this work, and helping others, and prayer, and petition, meditating, right?
• 18:17
  Because I'm seeking.
• 18:18
  Um, it says right here in, since we already have all this underline.
• 18:26
  To us, the realm of the spirit is broad and roomy.
• 18:30
  All inclusive, never exclusive, or forbidding to those who earnestly seek.
• 18:35
  It is open we believe to all men.
• 18:38
  And when therefore we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God, that should be highlighted right there.
• 18:45
  your own conception.
• 18:46
  On my conception, your conception.
• 18:47
  This applies to other spiritual experience, which expressions, I'm sorry, what you find in this book.
• 18:54
  Do not let any, do not.
• 18:57
  That's that's an important statement.
• 18:59
  Do not let any prejudice you may find against spiritual terms deter you from honesty asking yourselves what they mean to you.
• 19:06
  At the start, this was all we needed to commence spiritual growth, to affect our 1st conscious relationship with guys, we understood him.
• 19:15
  Afterward, we found ourselves accepting many things which then seemed entirely out of reach.
• 19:21
  That was growth, but if we wish to grow, we had to begin somewhere.
• 19:25
  So we used our own conception, however, however limited it was.
• 19:29
  And this is really the 1st part of step two.
• 19:32
  I think there's 2 parts, but you know, someone could argue with me and show me differently, but this...
• 19:38
  So I would underline all this right here or highlight it.
• 19:41
  I got a little bitty pencil in front of me, so I'm I'm on a line.
• 19:46
  We needed to ask ourselves, but one short question.
• 19:49
  Do I now believe or am I willing to believe that there's a power greater than myself?
• 19:55
  I think, you know, I need to, can this power get me from where I'm at this 2nd to further?
• 20:02
  If you've already been in this thing, right?
• 20:05
  So, like, I don't, to me, this is not a one and done thing, but.
• 20:09
  And then it says, as soon as a man can say that he does believe or is willing to believe.
• 20:15
  We emphatically assure him that he is on his way.
• 20:17
  It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this simple cornerstone, cornerstone needs to be circled, a wonderful effect of spiritual structure can be built.
• 20:27
  And you can just write out to the right of that real quick, page 75.
• 20:31
  I mean, That was the great news to us. For we assume we cannot make a use of spiritual principles unless we've accepted many things on faith, which seem difficult to believe.
• 20:43
  When people present us with the spiritual approaches, how frequently did we all say, I wish I had what that man's had, has, I'm sure it would work if I could only believe as he believes.
• 20:53
  That's so much saying, right?
• 20:54
  That,
• 20:56
  Like, oh, I wish I went through what he went through because I could be like him if I went through what he went through.
• 21:03
  You're right?
• 21:03
  So like, you know, I think it's what it's open to all of this.
• 21:07
  Anybody.
• 21:08
  You know, it's not just because this guy went through this and now he believes or he grew up with this and now he believes we all have our own story.
• 21:16
  That's why there's 42 personal stories in the back of the book and I got my own.
• 21:20
  And I'm not really worried about their stories.
• 21:25
  I worried about my story.
• 21:26
  I'm worried about making a story too, right?
• 21:28
  To help others.
• 21:30
  Anyways.
• 21:32
  Bottom of 47.
• 21:34
  But I cannot accept is surely true that many articles of faith which are so plain to him.
• 21:40
  So it was comforting to learn that we could commence at a simpler level.
• 21:45
  Besides a seeming inability to accept metro faith.
• 21:48
  We often found ourselves handicapped.
• 21:51
  And here's some things right here.
• 21:53
  So you can underline each of these and there's 6 more on page 51 too, or yeah, 51.
• 22:01
  So if you want to write one, 2 and 3 over these.
• 22:03
  We often found ourselves handicapped bond, obstinacy, sensitiveness and unreasoning prejudice.
• 22:09
  So there's 3 things.
• 22:11
  And if you remember, right, on the page before on page 46, instead of the lay as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice, and it's telling us what kind of prejudice to lay aside, all of them.
• 22:22
  Many of us have been so touchy that even a casual reference to spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism.
• 22:29
  This sort of thinking had to be abandoned.
• 22:32
  I think abandon is a really big word, maybe like surrender.
• 22:35
  That some of us resisted.
• 22:37
  We found no great difficulty in casting aside such feelings.
• 22:40
  Face.
• 22:41
  So this is this needs to be all holiday right here, this whole sentence faced with alcohol destruction.
• 22:48
  We soon became as open-minded on spiritual matters as we have tried to be on other questions.
• 22:55
  So like, you know, when I think about the abandoning that and why would I not?
• 23:00
  Um, you know, it's important because like if I'm in the grips of death.
• 23:05
  And I come in and I'm like, yeah, I'll do all this stuff.
• 23:09
  Oh, y'all are talking about God, never mind.
• 23:11
  I got other things I got to do.
• 23:12
  I came to a position where there was no other thing to do.
• 23:16
  I had no more options left, and I think that's an interesting thing because if I got so, if you've still got options left, we'll go, go exhaust them. I think, you know, I mean, that's the biggest, you know, probably, uh, I don't make good friends doing this, but, um, I mean, if you're not 100% certain that you're an alcoholic and you're at, and alcohol hasn't been the great persuader, and you need to have some more persuading, go get some.
• 23:42
  And I don't, I'd think, you know, through good sponsorship and people taking people through the book in a way, which I try to be of service in that way. Um, but if we're going to sit here and argue about God,
• 23:55
  I mean, this is this tells me this is the only option for someone like me.
• 24:01
  And so it says it, and then it goes on to say it finally beat us into a state of reasonableness.
• 24:07
  Well, have you been beaten to a state of reasonableness?
• 24:09
  Or are you still arguing the fact that you can do it another way?
• 24:13
  And if you can go about it?
• 24:14
  But don't bring anybody down with you in between.
• 24:20
  Sometimes this was a tedious process.
• 24:23
  We hope no one else will be prejudiced for as long as some of us were.
• 24:27
  The reader may still ask why I should believe in a power greater than themselves.
• 24:31
  We think there are good reasons.
• 24:32
  Let us look at them.
• 24:34
  And then it says, the practical individual, and we're at the middle of page 48 if anybody's not falling along or probably not falling along, but, you know, if you're trying to go page for page with me.
• 24:46
  It says the practical individual today is a stickler for the facts and results.
• 24:51
  Nevertheless, the 20th century readily accepts theories of all kinds, providing they are firmly grounded in fact.
• 24:57
  We have numerous theories.
• 25:00
  For example, about electricity.
• 25:02
  Everybody believes in with a murmur of doubt why this ready acceptance simply because it is impossible to explain what we see, feel direct, and use without reasonable assumption as starting port.
• 25:17
  Everybody nowadays believes in scores of assumptions, for which there is good evidence, but no visual proof, proof.
• 25:26
  And I think visual proof is a, uh, You know, I can think about a simpler way in the terms of wind, right?
• 25:35
  So I can't see when.
• 25:38
  But I can feel it.
• 25:40
  I can feel at some point in time, at least for me, I don't know about you, some feeling of little butterfly, um, moment that this god moment.
• 25:51
  It's not that I felt the prejudice. and why have I felt that? and it's put, there's this block in between me and this other shot?
• 25:59
  Well, is the other side going to hurt me?
• 26:01
  Right?
• 26:02
  So I feel like wind.
• 26:04
  And you know, I was kind of thinking about this a little bit.
• 26:07
  And so like, you know, I can feel wind.
• 26:10
  And I can see when when there's little particles in the air and I can see God when there's little, there's people walking around out here in, in the world, right?
• 26:20
  But I can't see just wind without something.
• 26:25
  And so today, like, you know, in my experience in this, I see going through people.
• 26:30
  I see God through this work.
• 26:32
  I see, man, today I feel, see, hear.
• 26:37
  You know, everything through God.
• 26:40
  But today's a different place.
• 26:42
  But in my life, I've just seen it through other people.
• 26:45
  I've seen people calm in calamity.
• 26:48
  I've seen disaster come.
• 26:50
  People just love.
• 26:51
  Man, what is that?
• 26:53
  Because I'm like a chicken with his head cut off out there.
• 26:56
  Um, And as it goes back to the tech, it says back up, it says, and does not science demonstrate that visual proof is the weakest proof.
• 27:07
  It is being constantly revealed as mankind studies for the material world that outer outer outward experiences are not inward reality at all to illustrate.
• 27:16
  The prosaic steel girder is a massive electrons whirling around each other at incredible speed.
• 27:23
  These tiny bodies are governed by precise law.
• 27:26
  And these laws hold truth throughout the material world.
• 27:30
  Science tells us so.
• 27:31
  We have no reason to doubt it.
• 27:33
  One, however, the perfectly logical assumption is suggested that underneath the material world in life, as we see it, there's an all powerful.
• 27:43
  So this is cool.
• 27:45
  Here's some more, here's some more kind of ways to describe God right here, all powerful, guiding, creative intelligence, right there.
• 27:54
  Our perverse streak comes to the surface and we laboriously set out to convince ourselves it isn't so.
• 28:01
  We read wordy books.
• 28:04
  You know, so like wordy books, like self-help books, books against God.
• 28:10
  It's all these different things and indulge in why the arguments, thinking we believe this universe needs no God to explain it, right?
• 28:18
  That I can do it on self-will alone.
• 28:20
  And I've tried that.
• 28:21
  Maybe you haven't, but I've exhausted that.
• 28:26
  Where our contentions.
• 28:28
  True, if would follow that life originated out of nothing means nothing and proceeds nowhere.
• 28:35
  Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing creation, we agnostics and atheists, choose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word.
• 28:48
  The alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end of all.
• 28:52
  Rather vain of us, wasn't it?
• 28:53
  Well, I hope it's not true because, you know, it tells me.
• 28:57
  You know, this, if that, if I'm an alcoholic, I may be suffering from an illness, which only a spiritual experience will conquer.
• 29:05
  If I'm aligned with that, how can I be aligned with over here?
• 29:09
  Anyways, we who traveled this dubious path, beg of you.
• 29:15
  So I told you on page 40, set eight, I guess, where it was.
• 29:23
  Yeah, top of 48, uh, one, two, three, obstinacy sensitive, unreasoning prejudice.
• 29:30
  So that's what it's asking you to lay aside and then right here, right?
• 29:33
  It says we who have traveled the dubious path, beg of you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion.
• 29:39
  So there's number four.
• 29:41
  We have learned that whatever the human fertilities of various faiths, maybe, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions.
• 29:51
  And I have this, this should be highlighted, right?
• 29:54
  People of faith have a logical idea what life is all about.
• 29:58
  Actually, we used to have no reasonable conception, whatever.
• 30:02
  We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that many spiritual minded persons, of all racist, colors, and creeds, were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness, and usefulness.
• 30:19
  Which we should have saw ourselves.
• 30:21
  Top of page 50.
• 30:24
  Instead, we looked at the human defects of these people.
• 30:27
  And sometimes use their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation.
• 30:32
  We talk of intolerance.
• 30:34
  This should be highlighted right here.
• 30:35
  We talked of intolerance and while we were intolerant ourselves.
• 30:40
  So like, you know, I think that's a cool subject to get on and make it kind of make it make sense to be someone like me and man, I ran around and I hated cops.
• 30:54
  I didn't hate them because I thought they were bad people.
• 30:58
  I thought I could justify them and tell you what the news says about them.
• 31:02
  But I hated it because they were always after me.
• 31:05
  Play cops and robbers, right?
• 31:07
  I played that game.
• 31:09
  But for some reason when I quit breaking the law, I quit hating cops as merch.
• 31:14
  When then when I started loving God's people, I started understanding those dudes just do a job.
• 31:19
  Yeah, there's some bad people in every job.
• 31:22
  There's not good people everywhere.
• 31:24
  And so you take one, but you know, that's the thing, right?
• 31:27
  And that was kind of the deal with me with church, an organized religion.
• 31:31
  I grew up in church and then one day my dad, he said, we're not, like, we, he didn't say we're not going, but we didn't go.
• 31:39
  So I had something to do with the monies and, you know, he kind of got this bad feeling about it.
• 31:47
  But, um, You know, it's like, I find, I can find one thing wrong with something and 99 things can be right, but you give me one thing wrong and I'm going to hold on to that.
• 31:59
  And I'm going to take people down with me too.
• 32:03
  Because I need them to believe what I, but you know, I've been intolerant my whole life.
• 32:07
  So, you know, it's like how I want to talk of intolerance of the church when I'm just out here wrecking people's lives and, you know, doing dangerous things and living a life of just, you know, misery.
• 32:20
  It says we miss the reality and the beauty of the force because we were diverted by us ugliness of some of his trees, just some of his streets.
• 32:28
  We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.
• 32:32
  In our personal stories, you will find a wide variation in the way each teller approaches and convenes of the power which is greater than themselves.
• 32:41
  Whether we agree with a particular approach or conception seems to make little difference.
• 32:47
  I think that needs to be highlighted right there.
• 32:49
  It makes little difference, what you believe, that Eastern, Western, Indian, it doesn't matter, right?
• 32:55
  It matters that you believe in something, and you stand like to me, man, you stand on something.
• 33:01
  Some principles and believe.
• 33:04
  Find, you know, and if you don't just come up with something.
• 33:08
  It's cool.
• 33:09
  I remember a story about a guy.
• 33:11
  He, uh, He, he wanted Thor, those Thor's rings.
• 33:17
  Someone said, you know, believe in your own conception.
• 33:19
  So he wanted to believe in the Thor and the Rings.
• 33:23
  I can't think of whatever he got the tattoo on his back.
• 33:25
  And then the guy went back up to him and saw him at a convention a couple years later and he was like, hey, man, so like, what do you think about like, he still got, how's the Thor's Rings, things going on?
• 33:36
  He said, man, you know, I got this tattoo and this and that.
• 33:39
  And, you know, I really think Thor and all those things are cool, but, um, we're kind of going in a different direction.
• 33:48
  And, um, you know, that's kind of like, you know, but that's the cool thing about this is like, my higher power is ever evolving, and it's growing because how could I, how could I explain a supreme being anyhow, right?
• 34:01
  And if it's, you know, I think it's a great thing if it grows because, man, my drinking sure did grow.
• 34:07
  Anyways, back to the text.
• 34:10
  It says, uh, experience has taught us that these are matters which, for our purpose, we need not be worried.
• 34:17
  There are questions for each individual to settle for himself.
• 34:20
  On one proposition, however, these men or women are strikingly agreed.
• 34:25
  Every one of them has gained access to him, believes in a power greater than himself.
• 34:30
  I would highlight that.
• 34:32
  I'm not doing too good with the highlight and underline and circle of stuff because I don't have anything in my book, but we're probably missing some really good stuff on me going to this book, but you know, it's this supposed to work how it's supposed to work anyways.
• 34:45
  This power is in each case, accomplish the miraculous, the humanly impossible.
• 34:50
  This should be a pink.
• 34:51
  As a celebrated American statesman put it, let's look at the record.
• 34:55
  So this whole paragraph, I would just say it needs to be in pink because it's a big promise.
• 35:01
  It says here are 1000s of women, men and women, worldly indeed.
• 35:06
  They flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a power greater than themselves to take a certain attitude toward that power and to do certain simple things, what are the simple things? I mean, but I think this book shows us.
• 35:17
  There has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking. In the face of collapse and despair, in the face of total failure of their human resources, my human resources.
• 35:29
  And I, like in some of my books out that were left of this, I have all human resources, right?
• 35:34
  That means you too.
• 35:36
  That means your meetings.
• 35:37
  They found out a new power piece happiness.
• 35:40
  So what I was talking about in the page 47, 46, so we had a new sense of power direction, this says this again.
• 35:50
  It says they found that a new power piece, happiness, and sense of direction.
• 35:55
  So, me saying, oh, I'm just powerless over what?
• 36:00
  Yeah, I'm pal, when I come in, I have a problem with, I can't stop drinking when I start. And after I, after I've not drank for a while, I still drink.
• 36:09
  I'm powerful when it comes to alcohol.
• 36:11
  I am not powerless from picking up the phone and calling somebody and checking on somebody.
• 36:15
  I'm not powerless, from being nice to my significant other.
• 36:18
  I'm not powerless from prayer, petition to God.
• 36:21
  I'm not powerless from doing this podcast right here, right?
• 36:25
  And doing a book study and trying to help others and going to meetings and being of service to my family, being in service to my kids, loving people, and treating people with dignity and respect.
• 36:36
  I'm not powerless from that today.
• 36:37
  And whoever says that you are, man, is doesn't know what this book says.
• 36:42
  Tell them they can reach out too.
• 36:45
  Um, says this happens soon as they wholeheartedly met a few simple requirements.
• 36:51
  requirements is a big word to circle.
• 36:53
  I think it should be.
• 36:53
  Once confused and baffled by the seeming fertility of existence, they show that the underlying reasons why they were making heavy going of life.
• 37:02
  Leaving aside the drink question.
• 37:05
  And like, I normally would stop here.
• 37:07
  Um, but we got a couple minutes before I got to get back.
• 37:11
  So, but this right here, if you can put it with mine or something right here and put like, The, because like it says, leave aside the drink question, right?
• 37:21
  So leaving aside, and so I would like to venture off and say from page preface to 51, we're talking about drinking and some other things in between, but it says right here, leaving aside the drink question.
• 37:34
  So broken down in that position, right?
• 37:36
  And I do what I'm taking guys that usually stop here.
• 37:39
  So, but I got, you know, let's keep on reading.
• 37:43
  Um, Leaving inside the drink question, they tell why living was so unsatisfactory.
• 37:49
  So maybe that unsatisfactory, unmanageable could be a interchanging word right there.
• 37:54
  They found that the change came over them.
• 37:56
  When many 100s of people are able to say that the consciousness of the present of God is the most important factor of their lives, they present a powerful reason why one should have faith.
• 38:06
  So God is the center point of my life.
• 38:10
  is the most important fact of my life and my families and me and my job.
• 38:15
  If I don't have that, man, I'm not going to do this.
• 38:17
  I'll tell you, I've tried it and it doesn't work for me.
• 38:20
  Um, to me where it starts, if you ever wanted to learn, know where that starts, I would start on page 84 to 88.
• 38:28
  And 86 and between there, because 84 is kind of through my day, but 86, 86 and says on Awakening and it starts right there.
• 38:38
  starts right when I wake out of bed and it's important.
• 38:41
  It says, back to the text.
• 38:45
  The world of ours has made many material progress in the last century, then all millenniums which went before.
• 38:52
  Almost everyone knows the reason.
• 38:54
  Students of ancient history tell us the best intellect of men, and those days was equal to the best of the day.
• 39:00
  Yet in ancient times material progress is painfully slow.
• 39:03
  The spirit of modern scientific inquiry, research, and invention was almost unknown.
• 39:09
  In the realm of the material, men's minds were fettered by, here's the other ones.
• 39:14
  So we got 4 things to lay aside.
• 39:18
  Now we have 3 more.
• 39:20
  So, if you want to, by superstition, that'd be five, tradition 6 and all sorts of fixed ideas, right?
• 39:29
  So I need to lay aside that stuff as well.
• 39:33
  Some of the contemporaries are Columbus thought a round earth, a preposterous, or sorry, sorry about that.
• 39:41
  Some of the, some of the contemporaries of Columbus thought around Earth preposterous.
• 39:47
  Others came near putting Galileo to death for his astronomical hearsays.
• 39:51
  We ask ourselves this, are not some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as we were the ancients about the realm of the material.
• 40:01
  Even in the present century.
• 40:03
  American newspapers were afraid to print an account of the Wright brothers, 1st successful flight at Kitty Hawk.
• 40:09
  Had all night efforts, failed flight, failed before, did not Professor Langley's flying machine go to the bottom of the Potomac River.
• 40:16
  Was it not true that the best mathematical minds had proved man could never fly had not people said God had reserved this privilege.
• 40:25
  To the birds.
• 40:27
  Only 30 years later, the conquest of air was almost an old story and airplane travel was in full swing.
• 40:35
  So this rest of this, these 2 paragraphs should be underlined, highlighted, and in between everything else.
• 40:42
  Um, you know, it's really cool.
• 40:46
  Um, this 1st one and the 2nd one is the bedevilments, but It says, but in most fields, our generation has witnessed complete liberation of our thinking.
• 40:55
  Showing longshoremen, and longshoremen is like just your blue collar worker.
• 41:00
  Um, just a normal dude, a Sunday supplement describing a proposal to explore the moon by means of rocking and he will say, I bet they do it.
• 41:09
  Not so long either is not our age characterized by the ease which we discard old ideas from new.
• 41:15
  By the complete readiness to throw away the theory or gadget which does not work for something new, which does.
• 41:21
  So, like, Troy Cole, this was written in 1939, like 30 years before we, they say we went to the moon, and then he talks about, like, you know, so if your theory and gadgets working right now, then, you know, by all means go with that.
• 41:34
  But I, you know, I'm not kind of introducing that to the person that's a theory and gadgets working.
• 41:40
  What about yours? It's not.
• 41:44
  Because mine was a.
• 41:46
  And I needed something different.
• 41:48
  And, you know, so this gives me some of the things in which, so you can ask yourself, and if you really want to get virtuous with this, my 1st sponsor had me go through these next things and put them on a single piece of paper and write out how I wasn't some of how I was some of this stuff, and we'll see, but these are the bedevilments in this next paragraph.
• 42:08
  And it says we had to ask ourselves why we shouldn't apply to our human problems.
• 42:13
  So my human problems is everything human, right?
• 42:16
  The same readiness to change our point of view.
• 42:18
  So maybe it's just been my point of view.
• 42:20
  That's the way I read it.
• 42:21
  It says we were having trouble with personal relationships, that's one.
• 42:24
  So if you were going to get a piece of paper, personal relationships at the top of paper, we couldn't control our emotional natures.
• 42:30
  Second, put emotional natures on the next paper.
• 42:33
  We were a prey to misery and depression.
• 42:35
  Misery and depression on the next piece of paper.
• 42:37
  Next piece of paper, we couldn't make a living.
• 42:40
  couldn't make a living.
• 42:42
  That's okay if you're still making good money.
• 42:44
  Are you happy making that money?
• 42:45
  Do you feel filled and you're lying?
• 42:47
  We had a feeling of uselessness.
• 42:50
  Next paper.
• 42:51
  We were full of fear.
• 42:53
  Next paper.
• 42:54
  We were unhappy.
• 42:55
  Next paper.
• 42:56
  We couldn't seem to be a real help to other people.
• 42:59
  was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important whether we should see newsreels of winter flight.
• 43:06
  Right?
• 43:07
  So like, that's it.
• 43:08
  Is that do you align with that?
• 43:10
  If you do, you know, well, let's keep reading.
• 43:14
  I'm going to read this last paragraph and And, you know, kind of end it for a day.
• 43:20
  We'll catch back on this bottom of 52 next week, but it says, when we saw others solve their problem by simple reliance upon the spirit of the universe, we had to stop doubting the power of God.
• 43:33
  Our ideas did not work, but the God idea did, does your ideas work right now?
• 43:39
  Are they sufficient for you to be fulfilled?
• 43:44
  And thank you guys for listening to me, rant.
• 43:47
  Yeah, I hate that I didn't have my book, but it's a cool opportunity to go through this work and I really enjoy it.
• 43:55
  And, um, if I hope some people out there really enjoy it too, and We'll talk to you next week.
• 44:01
  Thank you.