There is nothing scientific about AA. It is a philosophy. AA makes many claims, which are taken as truth, but have you ever noticed that AA never seems to produce actual statistics that verify its claims? I call this bumper sticker thinking.

One claim that is made continuously at meetings is that if you don't keep coming to meetings, you will drink again. That was pretty scary for me, so I kept coming to meetings. However, I soon realized that many people, who kept coming to meetings, kept going back out again and getting drunk. I was also aware that several people had stopped coming after a while, but still stayed sober. I started wondering about the accuracy of this statement.

The claim is made in the Big Book that alcoholics may be suffering from a disease that can only be treated by adopting a spiritual way of life. How verifiable is this claim? Does medical knowledge have any data to support this claim? Again, no statistics are available from AA to substantiate its view.

Over and over again, AA talks in slogans, while never verifying the accuracy of its claims. Let's analyze one of AA's favorite sayings:

Alcohol is cunning, baffling, and powerful. These are words carrying a lot of emotional punch. They are spoken at almost every AA meeting. Let's break them up into smaller bits and think about what is being said.

1. Alcohol is cunning: This unverifiable statement is an attempt to give alcohol human qualities; qualities which are meant to imply that alcohol has a specific agenda of it's own. Cunning is a quality of conscious thought, but alcohol does not think, and therefore, cannot be cunning. If one argues that this is not what the statement intends, then Bill Wilson simply should not have made this statement.

2. Alcohol is baffling: This statement implies that alcohol has mysterious qualities that we do not comprehend. In fact, science has identified the chemical configuration of alcohol, and even understands most of the mechanisms which cause its effects. The more important mystery is why do some people continue to drink when it is obviously not in their best interests? The problem is not that alcohol is baffling. People's behavior is baffling.

3. Alcohol is powerful: To a certain extent this is true, but how powerful is it? Is it more powerful than nicotine for example? In fact, within a few weeks of quitting alcohol, I had lost the obsession, whereas it took several years after my last cigarette to quit thinking about tobacco.

Another claim I heard at meetings was that, on the average, alcoholics are more intelligent than the general population. What information is there to support this claim? Has anyone administered IQ tests to a random sample of AA members to determine their average intelligence?

In addition to the intelligence claim, there is a somewhat related claim made in the Big Book that, on the average, alcoholics have more earning power than the general population. What data supports this statement? In my home group, roughly 20% of the members were on welfare or disability. The rest the group was composed of people who, for the most part, had rather menial jobs. No one appeared to be in the upper income bracket. Such unsupported statements go on and on in AA.

An AA friend makes the statement that God speaks to him through the members of the AA group. He is convinced that this is true, but his only support for this statement is that the information he gets at meetings is information which he needs to hear. Now there should undoubtedly be a certain amount of collective knowledge that the group would be able to share with individual members. After all, this sort of communication is what humans do, but why should one believe that this sharing of knowledge is really God speaking to them?

AA is continually characterized by shortages of critical thinking. Conclusions are drawn and agreed upon based primarily on the fact that people believe them or that Bill Wilson said so.

As a reaction to this sort of sloppy thinking, I began asking myself if this was the way I wanted to run my life. I decided to see if I could live my life sober without continuing attendance at AA meetings. With the thought that non-participation might lead to getting drunk, I began to skip meetings on occasion. Gradually I began going to fewer and fewer meetings. I go to a meeting on occasion, but more for the purpose of visiting with some friends I have made there. In fact, I have found that the axiom [If you quit going to meetings, you will drink again] is simply untrue.

More importantly, I have discovered the benefits of a life without AA go way beyond what I expected. While in AA I was taught to fear alcohol and to fear living without AA. What I have experienced is that without being given continual doses of fear, I have less fear in my life, and I don't dwell on my past problems with alcohol.

AA does not work for everyone, but we must admit that AA has helped some people. However, there are good reasons to get out of AA as soon as one has broken the addiction. Lasting sobriety is the result of a personal commitment. It is not some mysterious gift, which we can keep only on the condition that we allow ourselves to be indoctrinated into an organization, which at best, bases its program of recovery on bumper sticker thinking.

Dave