Atheists & Agnostics

And this was in Los Angeles, not exactly a rural Jesus-monopolized backwater.

Judge ordered me to attend AA due to a DUI (I was young and stupid).

I went to the first meeting, where some Dollar Store Pat Robertson hogged the microphone and "shared" his road-to-Damascus...or maybe Wal-Mart...moment. For what felt like about 3 days. Didn't take long for me to get enough of that.

I SPECIFICALLY WENT AND ASKED ABOUT AA-TYPE MEETINGS FOR NON-RELIGIOUS BELIEVERS. (Sorry for the caps, didn't want anybody to miss that.)

One of the women in charge said she had heard of a court-approved, non-religious meeting in "North Hollywood Park." But she also heard that they were "a bunch of Satanists."

Well. That was interesting. I'm an atheist, not a Satanist. But that sounded like a lot more fun than the meeting where I was stuck.

At the time I lived in walking distance of Amelia Earhart Park in North Hollywood (which is what that woman meant). Went to the library there all the time, so I knew the people who worked there. And figured the library was where the meetings would be held. I'd never heard of any Satanists in the 'hood. Unless you were a Fundie Xian and counted North Hollywood's large gay community with the devil-worshippers. Which you probably would. But I digress. Again...

Went and asked the librarians about this meeting of non-religious AA types. Or possibly the baby-eating but temporarily tee-totaling Satanist cabal operating right under their noses. Nobody knew what I was talking about.

So in the end I stuck with the AA meetings, just to get done with it. It wasn't so bad once I found another non-believer who attended. At least we could sit there and eye-roll together about all the humble-bragging Xians.

That guy's arrest story is worth repeating. He was drunk and on a motorcycle: "I left a party and was headed up Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Cops pulled me over and asked me to get off the bike. When I tried to get off, I fell down and pulled the bike on top of me. The cop said - "We may have a little bit of a problem here."