This amazing programme of recovery (really a kind of "life university"!) seems to work by osmosis rather than through the head. I stopped asking questions long ago, and just got on with doing whatever the old-timers said worked for them. I have been doing that for 26 years now, (with a break of 10 years when I returned to so-called "normal living", which in the end brought me right back into my addiction, a suicide attempt, loss of my marriage, most of my assets etc etc., in other words, much, much worse than before.)

Those old-timers kept on repeating to me that "your Higher Power can be anything you want as long as it is not you!".  At the beginning of chapter 5 in the AA Big Book it says:  "Until we let go of our old ideas absolutely, the result was nil..".   For me it turned out that my pre-existing idea of who or what God is, was just as much of a hindrance at the beginning as if I had had a pre-existing conviction of atheism. They both proved to be "old ideas".  

Complete open-mindedness, and "resigning from the debating club" turned out to be the keys to success on this journey. Of course my head would scream "What?  This whole thing seems to be the blind leading the blind! At least atheism can lay some claim to being scientific. How can this thing possibly work?"

All I can say is that it does work. It has not only stopped my acting out, but has opened the door to a life of personal freedom I had never experienced before. The rewards are massively worth it for those who see it through.