Submission

Some religions, like Alcoholics Anonymous, advise or demand submission to a "higher power", or god. This seems to have evolved from the alliance of religion and state in human history. Submission has been the tool of rulers throughout the ages. Religion gets to the human mind in youth to sew the seeds of submission in the populace. Modern poly-religious states have had to control media and expand internal military control in order to replace the effects of a unified religion for indoctrination. Syria is a good current example. The conflict of modern media (information) against militarism (control) mirrors the conflict between egalitarian education (information) and religion (control) during the Reformation and subsequent Age of Enlightenment in Catholic Europe.

Submission and oppression are complementary. Within the human mind, submission to habit or addiction leads to oppression of the best human qualities of health, personal growth and social responsibility. Voluntary submission of an adult to an external authority beyond civil and criminal law is a form of self limitation. When an entire society submits to unjust control, disaster always follows. The post-911 era in the U.S. is one example.

Those who submit to external control of their behavior are usually frightened people. Their fear is based in ignorance or dependence. The dependence could be based in psychological habits, developed in an unhealthy family environment. The dependence could be related to ignorance, which prevents them from gaining their own financial freedom. In any case, submission to the will of another is a choice of the adult human mind. Submission to habit or addiction is a choice of the adult human mind. Submission to powerlessness out of fear of harm is a choice of the adult human mind.

As a humanist, I have always felt an obligation to support the healthy independence and freedom of the oppressed. As a professional nurse, I have worked with those oppressed by the voices of hateful parents, to whom the tortured adult has submitted long after those parents were no longer physically powerful or present in his/her life. I have worked with those whose sexual identity had been turned to daily torture by submitting to hateful religious bigotry. I have worked with those who were tortured by fear of death, which was part of their submission to a hateful belief system which condemned them to an imaginary hell for being simply human.

In practice, I must sometimes submit to an understanding of my own limitations as one human being. This is the extent of submission in my life beyond my obligations as a lawful and nonviolent citizen. I do not submit to the values of others, even within Humanism, as an organized movement. I may agree or cooperate with those with whom I disagree, but I will not submit. This is a vast difference between humanism and religion. Humanism is a personal process, a practice, as I see it. Religion is a submission to constructed external dogma. Humanism is a practice of personal freedom in a compassionate and socially responsible way. Religion is a conformity of belief which requires little individual personal development.