“When they talked of a God personal to me, who was love, superhuman strength and direction, I became irritated and my mind snapped shut against such a theory.” (Chapter 1, Big Book)
“Pride is putting self in the place of God as the centre and objective of our life, or of some department thereof. It is the refusal to recognise our status as creatures, dependent on God for our existence, and placed by Him in a specific relationship to the rest of His creation.” (St Augustine Prayer Book)
I used to become irritable when presented with religious ideas, particularly Christian ones, particularly where God was mentioned, and I thought it was because I had theological objections.
What I sensed, instead, it turns out, was the presence of something greater than me, something much more powerful, with standards, values, and demands, who commanded both awe and obedience, and who wanted something more and better for me than I wanted for myself.
It ‘rubbed me up the wrong way’ because it was challenging my view of myself as the centre and main objective of my life.
Whether a person believes and precisely what others believe is none of my business or concern, but I can report that, when I developed a sufficient abhorrence for self-centredness, God-centredness seemed not so much of a bad deal, and the only thing that was threatened was the parasite of self that had been misdirecting me.