according to the highest courts that have ruled on these cases. According to these rulings, they have to offer secular alternatives.

"AA doesn't work who those who believe they are God. "

IISSSHHHSShhh. That is the kind of insult that makes A.A. so odious to so many. You claim not to be religious, but only a religious type would impugn that non-theists -- or people who have a problem with a religious program falsely claiming not to be religious -- think they are God.

"I choose to look at the religious references as a sign of the times from when AA was started"

LOL, it is just as religious now as it was in 1935. I don't get it, because it was religious in 1935, its not religious now?

"if someone is helped by belief in a "Higher Power," that's fine with me"

Fine with me too. Its when people are coerced into A.A./N.A. and having a prayer-answering favor-dispensing deity called God crammed down their throat that I get really upset, and I don't choose to "leave it".

I also get upset when A.A. does this bait and switch where they claim to not be religious, and then it is God this and God that and God God God, and not just any God, but a prayer - answering favor-dispensing deity that we have to "pray to for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out". (Don't tell me I can pray to a light bulb or a door knob or the group).

Don't get me started on the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6 and Luke 11). You'd feel the same way if you were coerced into Mohammed's Prayer straight out of the Quran.