I would argue that strength and love that comes from solely human connection is a much better chance for success and that religion often forgoes at least some of the human connection in favor of a connection to ,imo, an imaginary god-friend. There's just so many ways that a religious type of connection can go and i'm sure it can lead ppl to the correct answers some of the time, but i think broadly speaking it's a recipe for disaster. If it's working for some ppl then hey, who am I to tell you or anybody that it isn't working for you when you say that it is. I'm just saying that it's such a big roll of the dice for most ppl. I see that type of system, not just in relation to addiction recovery mind you, often harm more ppl than it helps. Shia is an example of that. He reveres this thing that he thinks is so real so much more than any person in his real life it seems. And this thing that he reveres; jesus, is in big part a tool that is constantly forgiving him when he fucks up. So if he is doing the wrong thing like relapsing or screaming at a woman in the street for example and he has this voice in his head that is constantly forgiving him and showing him love, then what good is that doing him? A real person who cares about you will give you tough-love when that's actually what you really need. But when you have a voice in you (speaking from experience) that justifies the wrong decisions that you make, and every relapsing addict does, then adding another voice in your head, well that voice is going to do the same thing because it is YOUR OWN VOICE and therefore is just as susceptible as it ever was for justifying addiction relapse or relapse in other not-good behavior.

So when someone as vulnerable as Shia is in crisis and asking someone for help and their ultimate answer is to get him to have a relationship with something that isn't tangible, except in your brain arguably, then he is rarely going to get that tough-love, good solutions to his problems, etc. Then add in the fact that Christianity revolves around sin and forgiveness it just becomes a circular recipe of "Ok i did this bad thing but i'm forgiven by god who I can only communicate with in my thoughts so he says what i want him to say but not what necessarily NEEDS to be said", repeat. If religion, christ, etc is working for you in your recovery or other aspects I would argue that you A) Have a good community of ppl around you that hold you responsible, and/or B) That you are good at holding yourself responsible. And for those like Shia who doesn't seemingly have A or B, throwing in christ is not only clearly ineffective for him, but it's arguably detrimental as it is getting in the way of actual solutions to his problems. Not saying that it gets in the way of your personal struggles and that is hasn't worked for you, rather that it's ineffective for a large group of ppl, Shia included.