Favoring autonomy

• Does autonomy deserve authority and is it entitled to a superior claim to the resources that would build that autonomy with the means of production over which society has control? 
• Do we privilege a value system that favors autonomy over, say, the will of a blood-thirsty god? 
• How do we feel about the authority of civilization's centrist institutions? 

Furthermore, the mainstream religions defend this privileging of autonomy by disqualifying honor codes in favor of authoritative systems of institution-building, and by replacing as the highest calling in society the exercise of raw power with the reproduction of the means of production.