Page 69 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

48 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy,
sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice. Many of us
have been so touchy that even casual reference to
spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism. This
sort of thinking had to be abandoned. Though some
of us resisted, we found no great difficulty in casting
aside such feelings. Faced with alcoholic destruction,
we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters
as we had tried to be on other questions. In this re-
spect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us
into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a
tedious process; we hope no one else will be preju-
diced for as long as some of us were.
The reader may still ask why he should believe in a
Power greater than himself. We think there are good
reasons. Let us have a look at some of them.
The practical individual of today is a stickler for
facts and results. Nevertheless, the twentieth century
readily accepts theories of all kinds, provided they are
firmly grounded in fact. We have numerous theories,
for example, about electricity. Everybody believes
them without a murmur of doubt. Why this ready
acceptance? Simply because it is impossible to explain
what we see, feel, direct, and use, without a reason-
able assumption as a starting point.
Everybody nowadays, believes in scores of assump-
tions for which there is good evidence, but no perfect
visual proof. And does not science demonstrate that
visual proof is the weakest proof? It is being con-
stantly revealed, as mankind studies the material
world, that outward appearances are not inward
reality at all. To illustrate:
The prosaic steel girder is a mass of electrons whirl-