Hello yagr.
Interesting post.
I found that many atheists do use the Group Of Drunks acronym in Step 3, when they are willing to follow the suggested things by AA as a whole. This is usually done through the aid of all those AA approved literature, a healthy Home Group with older sober members, and sponsorship. I can see that you have reached a good length of sobriety - congratulations for trusting (faith) in the AA program and anything else that helped you to stay sober.

Also, some recovering alcoholics understand God to be Truth. Honesty fits into the Truth category extremely well. It worked for me for over 27 years. To me, Truth, a far deeper truth than what we see on the surface, is the only reality. It has to be, because whatever is not true is a deception of sorts. AA has eluded to this in the big book when they wrote about Step 4. In their list (p.65), in the far right column, they bracketed (fear) with every resentment. Fear is an example of a deeper truth.

It is these truths (levels of self-honesty) that has led me to discover other truths such a unconditional love - the expression of truth. Truth is reliable, eternal, sets us free, doubtless, available, gentle (truth does not hurt, what hurts is our ego squirming), and other characteristics of truth and love. Truth and love are actually the same thing, one is the greater reality, the other expresses it. In my honest opinion.