If all you take is 12 steps, I am 12,000,000 ahead of you

Here is why twelve step programs are counter to human nature and are simply a way for an addict to consider himself diseased, unable to cope with challenges, and simply trade one addiction for another. Failure is not always the norm with this approach to sobriety or life. However, the basic principles of this program are defeatist and contrary to the essence of what it means to be an independent thinking and acting human being with the inherent power to change.

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.  The truth is that you became powerless. Period. You cannot become powerless over water, wheat, hops and barley. You can become a person who stops thinking about his/her value and then creates a habit that is self destructive and can have long term health effects including physical addiction( which is not a disease) or death due to that physical addiction. If at any point in your life you admit to your self or to others that you are powerless over something,by definition you are implying that you cannot defeat this thing. There was a time in your life that you did not drink and there fore you can and will be able to over come your self inflicted addiction to a substance or a drug if you simply are strong enough mentally and physically to do it.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. For the sake of argument . let's assume that there is a power greater than yourself. Let's go even further into the reality of your existence here on earth and assume that your"belief in said power" is something that helps support the realistic and tangible steps you need to take to restore your sanity. Sanity? I am not sure this is the right word because addicts are not insane. they made the choice to be self destructive and the substance physically and medically altered their brain chemistry forever and even altered their physical body and its ability to function temporarily.  suggesting that there is a power greater thanthe power you alone posses is to also concede to the fact that if you fail, you have something external to your self to blame and that is the easy road out. If the only power that exists in your wheelhouse that can enable you to remain sober is what you see in the mirror everyday than you are truly powerful and there is no need for a belief in a power other than yourself. A man prays to god and says," please don't let me have cancer !"(after smoking for 30 years as he waits in the doctor's office for his test. )The test comes back negative and that man thanks god for his mercy and intervention. the test comes back positive and that same man says, god why didn't you help me? I would say. well I have cancer and I did it to myself and now all i can do is do everything I can do to recover. If i did not have cancer, i would say, i never should have been here in the first place and I will do everything I can do to change my life accordingly .Cancer, however, is a disease. Alcoholism is bad habit that people self induce and continue to escalate through their own will power and then die. alcoholism and drug addiction are not diseases of the flesh. they are diseases of the mind and can be altered and corrected through the proper deployment of intelligence and care for the body.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. why again are you turning your life over to a crutch that may or may not be responsible for your sobriety and overall health. I'mnot truning my life over to anyone or anything. I am taking action everyday to make sure that I am the only god I will ever need. I make myself into a better person so that those around me can benefit from the man that I have become through my own efforts with no help from an idea, perceived or otherwise.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Morals are subjective and in order to take this inventory of yourself, you would need to do this every minute of everyday. As a growing and changing human being your perception of yourself and the world around you changes all the time. Unless you subscribe to a specific moral code like a religion, then your situation should dictate your moral inventory. If your moral inventory includes the idea that you would not kill someone, does this mean you would not kill an attacker who tried to harm you or your child. No one has a true static moral inventory and anyone that says that they do lives under the shroud of a religion that is not based in the real world that we live in.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.  I have already explained that a belief in God is irrelevant and is simply a crutch for the good or for the bad so you can feel free to do with that nonsense what you will but I'd rather admit my wrong doings to a stuffed animal.  Admitting that you are wrong to your self is quite enough because you alone are the only person that can right that wrong. Other people are irrelevant as far as admitting "wrongs" No other human being is in a position to judge you as their wrongs could be a thousand times worse than yours. On the flip side, another person's wrongs could simply not exist and therefore they are certainly in no position to judge you at all. whatever the case may bek, your judgement of you is all that really matters because your opinion and assessment of you is what will ultimately guide your success or failure in this life and on your journey towards sustained sobriety. If the person I most respect turns to me one day and tells me that I am not worth anything, does that give me a reason to start using or drinking again? Nok, it means that this person is no longer relevant because my opinion of myself is the most important thing in the world. Here's why: If I believe I am a goodk, powerful, intelligent and caring person than I can be other things to anyone else. You can be a good father, wife, husband, son, friend, cousin, boyfriend, etc. However without a strong belief in your own goodness, you cannot be anything to anyone else.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.I challenge one person to show me how their god. a manifestation of or belief in removed their defects without their direct involvement. In other words if a god could remove your defects it would contradict the notion of how god gave us free will and therefore, as opposed toa godk, we are human and necessarily have defects. If god wanted to remove your defectsk, he could very easily do that but he chooses not to and allowed you to self destruct and become addicted to a substance. so to turn around and claim that this same god removed your defects is a vicious circle of contradiction. You are the only entity that can remove your so called defects. In factk, you are not removing defects. You are replacing bad habits with good ones to make you a better you.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. The humble will not succeed in this world especially when they are being humble to an idea. what's funny is I vowed that if "he" exists, I told him to go fly a kite many many years ago. So in spite of my disdain for the idea of "Him"k, I thrive and help others to thrive and "he" has nothing to do with my achievements. Only "I" do and I am more powerful than "Him"
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. This is the most aggravating waste of time of them all and stirs the pot of the endless self defeating and backward thinking cornerstones of this process. You can't repair what you did to all the people you hurt in the past. They may not even care anymore, they may not want to make amends. You cannot change the actions of the past and any attempt to do so will be met under the guise of this process. People know why you are doing it and it is ultimately more for you than for anyone else. People know that and understand this process to be a manufactured one with no real consequence other than to help your sobriety . It also sends a message that you are dependent on the opinion of others for your sobriety. Again you are not not proving your independence and strength by performing this action. You are simply seeking approval and forgiveness from others so that you can continue on in your sobriety. It means nothing and will not change the fact that you did the things that you did. Stop living inthe past and just move on with or without the forgiveness of others. In this new life you are creating for yourself, these people may not even matter and if they really matter and really care for you, the greatest gift you can give to them is becoming sober, staying sober and becoming a better person to them inthe future as opposed to asking for forgiveness from the past.  I had someone try and pull this shit on me once and I said," no i don't forgive you, go forgive yourself and stop groveling, stand before yourself and become a better person and then and only then will you really give me the benefit of knowing you. what you did in the past is of no relevance." He told me to fuck off at first! He is a good friend to this day and has value in my life because he took my advice and did everything for himself.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Okay enough. Other people do not matter. spend the time you would spend making amends on becoming a better person.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. This si the only part of this that I buy into. You need to take personal inventory everyday because it changes everyday. You are not a machine with a finite set of rules. Then when you make a mistake admit it to yourself or to the person you wronged and then move on. If the person you wronged does not forgive you, they are no longer relevant and you move on in life to cater to yourself and those that are relevant.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. This is garbage and is centered around a belief in god that has no place in an action based human plan to improve oneself based upon what is tangible and real. This is cult based herd morality nonsesne that has no effect on anyone except others within the cult.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. You  need to have a spiritual, mnetal, and physical awakening in order to truly realize the potential of your human existence. If you sit around in a room full of people who became addicted to substances through their own efforts and rely on each other for their sobriety and new lifek, you are simply an interdependent fool in a cult . A cult that tries to make you believe that you have a disease. Alcoholism is not a disease. Proof: I drank enough and drugged enough to put myself into a coma. Friday I ran 6 miles and did a full body workout in the weight room and read 4 chapters of a history book. Yesterday I did another full body workout and enjoyed time with my family. Today with muscles sore and tired i will run 5 miles in the rain and will not stop unless my new ACL snaps again. Does it sound to you like I have a disease? Maybe i'll run to hospital standing tall with a perfect Body mass index and 165 pounds of shredded muscle and tell a little boy dying of cancer that I have a disease and am powerless over beer and heroine. Maybe I will tell a  mother dying o f breast cancer that I need to turn to god to save me from the evil disease of alcoholism that struck me in the prime of my life. If you believe you have a disease called alcoholim than you deserve to fail and deserve your relapses, coins, and sponsors because you are not even close to being an unstoppable master of one. 
13. I take 12,000,000 steps. You take 12. Let's see who is the better human being without excuses or dependence on anyone or anything. If you believe what I am saying. I have physical, tangible, real , proof that I am right. I am not better or worse than anyone else as far as my experiences with substances but I am better than you if all you take is 12 steps. If all you take is 12 steps...I am 12k,000,000 ahead of you.