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Sure sounds like it is losing its original purpose to me- to bring people closer to the Christian god, since the 12 steps were formed from a Christian prayer group.
I am describing its original purpose in the sense of prayer's original purpose in psychology and sociology.
One can learn lessons from religious practices without becoming religious in the process.
Besides prayer in general, take another look at the step:
Do you know what that is? Look at it as an athiest, and imagine what purpose that step serves.
Seeking to understood God and his will? That's not - as many would put it - a human trying to communicate with a Sky Dad.
That's a human trying to understand his own Coherent Extrapolated Volition: "our wish if we knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were, had grown up farther together; where the extrapolation converges rather than diverges, where our wishes cohere rather than interfere; extrapolated as we wish that extrapolated, interpreted as we wish that interpreted"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_artificial_intelligence
When a human makes a gesture and a sound on cue, they're usually engaging in in-group signalling. But when a human prays and meditates on finding God's Will for them, they are trying to imagine their own desires and needs from the standpoint of a superior being. One with more information, a greater mind, a greater moral compass. They are trying to make themselves better by imagining the ways they could be better.
Athiests do this too, they just call it cognitive behavioral therapy and moral philosophy.
I'm looking at it as an atheist and it absolutely looks like a human trying to communicate to a god to me. I have no idea how to interpret "improve our conscious contact with God" any other way.
Then you're not experiencing any empathy for them. You're not actively putting yourself in their perspective, their world. You're accepting what they say, not extrapolating from that to understand what they think.
Religious people generally don't hear voices in their head. We know God doesn't talk to them. They know God doesn't talk to them. They might believe in signs or whatever, but they don't hear a voice when they pray, and they certainly don't expect to.
From the outside perspective of an athiest, you should be able to see that all they're really doing is using their imagination to simulate a being greater than themselves and then asking "what would that being want for my life?"
This is not very functionally different from asking ourselves "if I was a better person, what would I want for my life?"
The theistic process could be corrupted by malformed ideas about the things a deity would want, sure. But the athiestic process could also be corrupted by malformed ideas about the things a good person would want.
I did exactly what you asked me to do and now you're saying I did it wrong.
This is a secular interpretation of "improve our conscious contact with God" that doesn't actually involve "communicating with a God"
Is there something about this interpretation that you don't understand or disagree with?
I already told you what I didn't agree with and why I didn't agree with it several times, so I have no idea why you keep asking me over and over as if I will change what I said.
I even did what you wanted.
It feels like you just are insistent that I must agree with you.
I didn't and still don't see any explanations for why you disagree, other than "being athiest" which I do not believe is sufficient explanation in and of itself. There are plenty of athiests who find reasons to agree or disagree on this topic beyond that single belief.
I apologize if my approach seems insistent that you need to agree with me. I only wanted to explore the topic further, and am happy to discontinue that if the desire is not reciprocated. Farewell.
I said a hell of a lot more than that.
Did you? To me? Where?
Does it matter? Whatever I said was stupid and worthless anyway.
I never said that, nor did I ever think that. But you have made clear that this discussion is unwanted, and I will respect that and say no more on it. Farewell.
I never said you said it. I said it. Because it's true.