"human" in the Big Book

Judging from what I had seen in Europe and since, the power of God in human affairs was negligible, the Brotherhood of Man a grim jest.

His human will had failed.

Here was something at work in a human heart which had done the impossible.

An illness of this sort—and we have come to believe it an illness—involves those about us in a way no other human sickness can.

How often have some of us begun to drink in this nonchalant way, and after the third or fourth, pounded on the bar and said to ourselves, “For God’s sake, how did I ever get started again?’’ Only to have that thought supplanted by “Well, I’ll stop with the sixth drink.’’ Or “What’s the use anyhow?’’ When this sort of thinking is fully established in an individual with alcoholic tendencies, he has probably placed himself beyond human aid, and unless locked up, may die or go permanently insane.

We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.

Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense.

Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly.

Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God’s ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all.

We have learned that whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions.

8/13/07 10:55 AM Page 50 Instead, we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation.

In the face of collapse and despair, in the face of the total failure of their human resources, they found that a new power, peace, happiness, and sense of direction flowed into them.

We had to ask ourselves why we shouldn’t apply to our human problems this same readiness to change our point of view.

For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself.

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6.

(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.

Here we find human opinions running to extremes—absurd extremes, perhaps.

We’d hardly be human if we didn’t.

This requires action on our part, which, when completed, will mean that we have admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our defects.

Keep it always in sight that we are dealing with that most terrible human emotion—jealousy.

If your talk has been sane, quiet and full of human understanding, you have perhaps made a friend.

They often forget father was beyond human aid.

But this does not mean that we disregard human health measures.