# "Who are you to say there is no God?": who says it, and to whom?

**In short:**
- No one says it to anyone else. In the Big Book it is a thought that came to a man "who thought he was an atheist" ([p. 55](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-55/)) while he was alone in his hospital room. "Then, like a thunderbolt, a great thought came." ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)) The question was put to him, in his own head, about his own unbelief.
- It's on page 56, at the end of Chapter 4, "We Agnostics," the chapter written to the agnostic reader. The book tells the man's story as one example and adds at once that it isn't everyone's way: "To this man, the revelation was sudden. Some of us grow into it more slowly." ([p. 57](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-57/))
- When the book tells members how to talk to an agnostic or atheist newcomer, it says the opposite of challenging him: "make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God." ([p. 93](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-93/))
- The man tells it again himself in "Our Southern Friend," a member's story in Part I ([pp. 208–218](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-208/)). There the words come as "a thought that is like a voice" ([p. 215](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-215/)). Later histories identify the writer of that story as Fitz M., an early member.

## The story in Chapter 4 ([pp. 55–57](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-55/))

The chapter introduces him this way: "In this book you will read the experience of a man who thought he was an atheist." ([p. 55](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-55/)) What it tells in order:

1. He was a minister's son who rebelled against "an overdose of religious education" ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)), and years of trouble, family calamity and worsening alcoholism brought him to the point of self-destruction ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)).
2. In a hospital he was approached by an alcoholic who had known a spiritual experience. He cried out: "If there is a God, He certainly hasn't done anything for me!" ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/))
3. Later, "alone in his room" ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)), he asked himself: "Is it possible that all the religious people I have known are wrong?" ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)) While he thought about it, he felt as though he lived in hell ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)).
4. Then the thought came, and "It crowded out all else" ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)): "Who are you to say there is no God?" ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/))
5. He "tumbled out of bed to his knees" ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)), was overwhelmed by a conviction of the Presence of God, and "He had stepped from bridge to shore." ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)) That image answers the chapter's earlier picture of agnostics who had walked far over "the Bridge of Reason toward the desired shore of faith" ([p. 53](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-53/)) but couldn't quite step ashore.
6. His alcoholic problem was taken away that night; save for a few brief moments of temptation, the thought of drink never returned ([pp. 56–57](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)).

Then the book's comment: "What is this but a miracle of healing? Yet its elements are simple." ([p. 57](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-57/)) "Circumstances made him willing to believe." ([p. 57](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-57/)) "He humbly offered himself to his Maker—then he knew." ([p. 57](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-57/))

## Who says it, and to whom

The text is plain on this. The visitor in the hospital didn't say it, and the book doesn't put it in any member's mouth. The man asked himself whether the religious people he had known could all be wrong; the "great thought" ([p. 56](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-56/)) came while he was alone. The "you" in the question is the man himself.

So the line is a turning point in one man's experience, offered as testimony. It isn't presented as something to say to an unbeliever, and the rest of the book points the other way when members speak to one:

- Chapter 4: "When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God." ([p. 47](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-47/)) The "one short question" ([p. 47](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-47/)) the chapter says we needed to ask ourselves is whether he believes, "or am I even willing to believe" ([p. 47](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-47/)), in a Power greater than himself.
- Chapter 7, on talking with a prospect who is agnostic or atheist: "make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God." ([p. 93](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-93/)) "He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him." ([p. 93](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-93/)) And about theological terms: "Don't raise such issues, no matter what your own convictions are." ([p. 93](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-93/))

The book doesn't say in so many words "never quote this line to an atheist." But a member who used it as a challenge would be doing something the book's instructions for that situation don't support.

## The man's own telling (a member's story)

"Our Southern Friend" is in Part I of the stories, "Pioneers of A.A.," described as early members of A.A.'s first groups (p. 169). Its subtitle calls him a "minister's son, and southern farmer" ([p. 208](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-208/)). It's a member's story in the fourth edition (2001), not program text, and some details differ from the Chapter 4 summary:

- The visitor was another patient, who had come back nine days after leaving "saying that I was going to be honest, but I wasn't" ([p. 214](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-214/)). He asked whether the writer believed in a power greater than himself, "whether I call that power God, Allah, Confucius, Prime Cause, Divine Mind, or any other name." ([p. 214](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-214/)) The writer answered that he believed in electricity and other forces of nature, but "as for a God, if there is one, He has never done anything for me." ([p. 214](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-214/))
- Alone, he wondered whether "all the worthwhile people I have known" could be wrong about God ([p. 214](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-214/)), then began to see he had always judged himself "by comparing myself to others and always to my own advantage." ([p. 215](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-215/))
- "Then comes a thought that is like a voice." ([p. 215](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-215/)) It "rings in my head; I can't get rid of it." ([p. 215](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-215/))
- Unlike the Chapter 4 summary, the story doesn't go straight from the thought to his knees. He first went to the visitor's room to ask how prayer fits in ([p. 215](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-215/)), went back to bed, felt "a wave of utter hopelessness" ([p. 215](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-215/)), and then a hope that "It might be true." ([p. 215](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-215/)) Then he knelt, and "I believe in God." ([p. 215](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-215/))
- The subtitle words it in the first person: he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?" ([p. 208](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-208/))

The story also shows what followed was not all easy: he lost touch with the fellowship at home, grew angry, began "to play God" ([p. 217](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-217/)), and once planned a deliberate drunk, which fell apart when he told his wife honestly what he meant to do ([pp. 217–218](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-217/)).

## Who he was (later histories, dated)

The Big Book doesn't name him. It says his experience can be read "In this book" ([p. 55](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-55/)), but doesn't say which story is his. The details match: a minister's son, a hospital, the same words. *A.A. Comes of Age* (1957) and *Pass It On* (1984) both identify the writer of "Our Southern Friend" as Fitz M. of Maryland (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957; *Pass It On*, 1984). *A.A. Comes of Age* calls him "the second man to recover at Towns Hospital" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957).

*A.A. Comes of Age* describes him as a minister's son and "deeply religious" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957). While the book was being written he pressed for it to be Christian "in the doctrinal sense of the word" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957). Bill W. wrote that out of the arguments between Fitz and the former atheists came the expression "God as we understood Him" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957).

When the book came out in 1939, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick's review (reprinted in *A.A. Comes of Age*) quoted the line as something "one atheist in this group heard a voice say" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957) in the hospital.

See: *What does "deep down in every man, woman, and child is the fundamental idea of God" say?* · *What does "either God is everything or else He is nothing" mean in its place?* · *Do I have to be religious to work the Steps?*

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 4, "We Agnostics" ([pp. 44–57](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-44/); the story on [pp. 55–57](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-55/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt4.pdf
- Chapter 7, "Working With Others" ([p. 93](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-93/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
- "Our Southern Friend" is in the personal stories ([pp. 208–218](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-208/)), in the full book sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapter 4, "We Agnostics" | 47, 53, 55–57 | 1939 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapter 7, "Working With Others" | 93 | 1939 |
| "Our Southern Friend" (a member's story, Part I) | 169, 208–218 | fourth edition (2001) |
| *A.A. Comes of Age* (incl. Fosdick's 1939 review) | — | 1957 |
| *Pass It On* | — | 1984 |

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.*