Show notes
John Huey discusses the second essay in his five-part series on Atheism and Sobriety. This episode focuses on personal responsibility and recovery from the perspective of an atheist, and how John’s atheism was a primary driver of his recovery.
Personal Responsibility and Recovery – An Atheists View
By John Huey
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you someone else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Self-Reliance
As atheists, the only reality we know is the reality apprehended by our senses and manifested in the world as it is presented to us.
For me, there is no luxury of an alternate reality or a living fantasy world such as in the remarkable edifice, constructed over many centuries, by the Roman Catholic Church. We are forced to see things as they are and self-reliance, being inherent in any free thought, predominates. That, in turn, can become the basis of a rational assessment of a way forward in response to alcoholism and/or addiction which can continue unless we chose to alter our consciousness chemically or by means of supernatural philosophies, which nearly always render a secular user/adherent dependent on something outside himself or herself while not acting in her or his best interest as a non-believer.
Even in artistic pursuits, where the inspiration lies, in great part, in the construction of alternate views of reality, artists who are atheists can find that they are grounded by the necessity of self-knowledge and the actualization of individual personal vision along with the exploration of the beauty inherent in a world based on fact. This can be so even as the imagination soars in various forms of revery.
The real world, the truth on the ground as it’s seen, is, in its own way, transcendent. A failure of the powers of perception that succumbs to the misdirection of a drink or a drug or in the belief in things that are supernaturally incorporeal, can come, no matter where you are on the spectrum of non-believers, with the most severe consequences.
Anecdotally, after many years of observing other addicts and alcoholics in recovery from all societal, educational, and socio-economic levels, it became obvious to me that many of those who share our condition, particularly those who face continual and chronic relapse, suffer from a critical deficit of the imagination. Mostly, they fail to step up to the proposition that making a commitment to rectify their circumstances requires taking their fate into their own hands via a declaration of personal responsibility that manifests in a clear “moment of decision” about their drinking and/or drug use. (See note #1)
This thought might seem at odds with some theories of addiction that imply that brain chemistry, or structural neurological deficits, may be at the root of our difficulties and that assertions of personal will and self-determination are no match for the addictive process itself. To me, such assumptions, in the absence of firm and definitive science, are a dangerous admission of defeat.
In addition to knowing that there is no possibility of divine guidance or revelation is the knowledge of the abiding fact that cognition is not mystical, and that our reactions to reality are entirely personal in that we have only ourselves to rely on in advancing toward a true commitment to total abstinence.
This commitment to personal responsibility for our own recovery should not be misconstrued as selfishness or self-obsession. It is merely a recognition that, as atheists, who encounter a real world in real time, that true self-knowledge, as regards our own condition, begins with this very acknowledgement of personal value and self-love. It is not egocentric so much as it is self-actualizing and self-sustaining to be cognizant of this.
What would we find ourselves left with in the absence of this sense of personal responsibility?
Personal Responsibility and Recovery – An Atheists View
By John Huey
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you someone else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Self-Reliance
As atheists, the only reality we know is the reality apprehended by our senses and manifested in the world as it is presented to us.
For me, there is no luxury of an alternate reality or a living fantasy world such as in the remarkable edifice, constructed over many centuries, by the Roman Catholic Church. We are forced to see things as they are and self-reliance, being inherent in any free thought, predominates. That, in turn, can become the basis of a rational assessment of a way forward in response to alcoholism and/or addiction which can continue unless we chose to alter our consciousness chemically or by means of supernatural philosophies, which nearly always render a secular user/adherent dependent on something outside himself or herself while not acting in her or his best interest as a non-believer.
Even in artistic pursuits, where the inspiration lies, in great part, in the construction of alternate views of reality, artists who are atheists can find that they are grounded by the necessity of self-knowledge and the actualization of individual personal vision along with the exploration of the beauty inherent in a world based on fact. This can be so even as the imagination soars in various forms of revery.
The real world, the truth on the ground as it’s seen, is, in its own way, transcendent. A failure of the powers of perception that succumbs to the misdirection of a drink or a drug or in the belief in things that are supernaturally incorporeal, can come, no matter where you are on the spectrum of non-believers, with the most severe consequences.
Anecdotally, after many years of observing other addicts and alcoholics in recovery from all societal, educational, and socio-economic levels, it became obvious to me that many of those who share our condition, particularly those who face continual and chronic relapse, suffer from a critical deficit of the imagination. Mostly, they fail to step up to the proposition that making a commitment to rectify their circumstances requires taking their fate into their own hands via a declaration of personal responsibility that manifests in a clear “moment of decision” about their drinking and/or drug use. (See note #1)
This thought might seem at odds with some theories of addiction that imply that brain chemistry, or structural neurological deficits, may be at the root of our difficulties and that assertions of personal will and self-determination are no match for the addictive process itself. To me, such assumptions, in the absence of firm and definitive science, are a dangerous admission of defeat.
In addition to knowing that there is no possibility of divine guidance or revelation is the knowledge of the abiding fact that cognition is not mystical, and that our reactions to reality are entirely personal in that we have only ourselves to rely on in advancing toward a true commitment to total abstinence.
This commitment to personal responsibility for our own recovery should not be misconstrued as selfishness or self-obsession. It is merely a recognition that, as atheists, who encounter a real world in real time, that true self-knowledge, as regards our own condition, begins with this very acknowledgement of personal value and self-love. It is not egocentric so much as it is self-actualizing and self-sustaining to be cognizant of this.
What would we find ourselves left with in the absence of this sense of personal responsibility?
