It seems to be a comfort and sedating to hand over your personal power to another, be they an invisible being or power or be they an organization we believe has our best interest at heart, say a government.

So technically this could go into the religious catagory or the political catagory but I would like to assess what makes us feel so much comfort from this action.

All religions want you to sign over the power of what is going to happen to you to a diety of some kind. They do this by telling you things like, "you don't know gods plan so ....." "He never gives you anything you can't handle" which implies it is all out of your control, etc....

With government we actually assign people to make restrictions for all of us to abide by, in the interest of all.

So basically we are saying to ourselves that we know we cannot be held responsible for ourselves on a moral, physical, spiritual level by ourselves for ourselves, right?


How crippling is this for the growth of a human morally, mentally, spiritually, physically (actions) to full and utter self responsibility?

I come from a thought pattern that taken personal responsibility is tantamount to living life. I cannot understand those who would turn over their thought making, their decision making or life style to a idealogy, to a dogma.

How can you learn or grow if you're turning over your will completely to some other decision maker?

For me growing up in a very strict religious atmosphere..along with my father being an ex marine cop, we were forced to take on those thoughts and opinions of our parents...it was awful stifling.

I left it all very young so I could break away and be who I need to be.

I had to completely lose the salvation theory to find my spirituality..to be responsible, to be free.

Your statement below is soooo true.






"How can you learn or grow if you're turning over your will completely to" some other decision maker?

You were the one who made me think about this with somthing you said yesterday.

I am glad you found yourself because it is easy to lose who you are in those situations.

Power and control is what you make of it. Somethings we have power and control over and others we do not. We have to power to make decsions which is one of the greatest powers.

I know that some will feel this is a religious attack thread but it is not.

Even the religious have to be able to see the comforting and sedating effect of handing over your personal power to someone or something else. But does it really do them any favors in the end? Are they more morally responsible because of this? How about mentally stronger?

I think you just answered your own question. It all depends on who or what the person is handing over power to and for what reason. This will decide the benifits or conseqences of actions or if anything may happen at all.

Great post!

It is enabling. Its what the alcoholic's wife and family do for the alcoholic so he never has to deal with his problem (could be a woman with an enabling husband).

The family thinks they're helping their loved one, but in reality they have set up a situation where the alcoholic will never truly be free and never grow as a human being. He or she will die (probably earlier than should be) a morally, mentally and spiritually empty person.

Religion and government allow us to go through life without ever truly having to be responsible for ourselves and take responsibility for the shape our lives are in. They promote a chronic victim mentality.

I am not against either religion or government. I'm just against those parts that do what the OP stated.

No matter weather you "hand over" the power to anyone..

WE are not EVER completely in control... so.. does it make a difference? Probably not.

Yes it makes a big difference. It doesn't make sense to give away all my money just because I might get robbed at some point.

I would think it would be wise to keep as much control as you can considering mother nature and accidents etc...

I was more concerned with the mindset behind it and the end result to the mind and body and spirit. Because we all do it, some at higher levels than other but pretty much everyone willingly hands some of their personal control over to either the god or the government. Notice the willingly part. Why are they so willing to do it?

There are advantages to handing power over to others or a god.

You get to blame someone else for even your own mistakes.

You never have to grow up, basically you always have a father or mother or both all your life.

The battle of good and evil becomes external instead of internal as it really is.

Etc...

I am not anti government either, religion, god and I have had issues for a long time....lol But it isn't really being anti but seeing what the action, interaction and reaction are with the whole process.

Im not so sure about others, but I do ALL I can, and give the rest to the universe, the powers that be, my higher power, God.. whatever.

I accept im not in control. I most certanly cannot control mother nature, or accidents, or some "on purposes".

I dont have much to lose in this situation.


MY God expects me to take personal responsibility for all of my actions, and it is underlined in my belief.

There is way too much going on there for me to even comment on.

It is the concept of willingly passing the power to something or someone else. Is this healthy? Does it keep one dependent? Is there a healthy dependency?

It's an analogy. You said it doesn't matter whether or not you give away your control since we don't have control over everything. I disagree. Just because I don't have control over everything doesn't mean its a good idea to give away what control I do have.

Is that more clear?

Okay, so if we do not feel threatened by the power, then handing over our power to it is okay, right? But how do we really know the intent of this power? We are told by that power that it is benign?

I understand the letting go after a certain point of working out problems. So you do not worry about it constantly, you have to work it out as far as you are capable at the time and let time work after that. I do not hand the responsibility consciencely to something else though. It is that the time comes to wait for the results of the work I did.

This was just a question thread here because we see this all over the world.

Could it be one of the problems with humanity to this day?

OP-handing over power to authorities is crippling spiritually and mentally. This is why all empires and grand religions ultimately fail. The American Empire is coming to a close surprisingly quickly, but all empires must end. ttyl.

Yes and this is the biggest problem. The assumption that this higher power knows our best interest AND knows best how to address it.

And even if these powers, religious institutions or other powers, believe they are only doing what's best for everyone, how can they really know? They apply rules across the board that can't possibly be helpful to everyone in every situation.