One of the ways to develop the ability to have a mind of your own is to think for yourself. The need for this should be obvious but obstacles can get in the way of thinking for one’s self. For example, religiosity can be an obstacle. I say this as a religious person.
Consider the following paragraph in Pirkei Kinyan Da’at (chapters in the Acquisition of Consciousness) by Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe:
“[I have received] letters [from students] claiming: ‘Independent thinking is liable to lead to arrogance.’ This is an example of mistakes that literally twist the process of serving God from the start. ‘Do not rely on your insight’ (Proverbs 3:5) means that once you already have insight there is a further stage in serving God of not relying on the insight that you have. But when you do not yet have any insight or any awareness…?! At first glance these responses come from fear of heaven. But it’s not true. It comes from laziness! It’s easier to run and ask a question on every small matter than to think for yourself. As for the fear of arrogance, there is more to fear of submissiveness than of arrogance. In the musar house [place for study of spiritual/ethical development] we teach how to acquire conscious awareness, and you cannot expect to grab all the spiritual levels of consciousness in one go.” (p. 67)
I agree with this religious scholar and guide that it’s an easy escape to let religious authorities do your thinking for you. It is also an easy escape to avoid the challenge by rejecting religion.
In a certain sense religious authority can be compared to medical authority. These are people with knowledge and information that you are lacking. But once you get the information and understand the implications of it, you still need to think for yourself and make the best informed decision you can. You can’t donate your brain to science and say, “I don’t know anything so you decide for me.”
At the same time, there is something even more challenging about religious authority. Speaking from a Jewish perspective, I believe in the oral tradition as it’s been handed down. I believe that the law is “not in heaven” but is an alive, dynamic system, given to human beings who continue to work out its meaning as it applies to ever-developing new realities of life.
However, it is not given over to just anyone. As a living tradition it has to be carried and conveyed by those who are strongly connected to the source. Thus, I feel that most of the problems the person on the street has with religious practice is not a problem with God but a problem with their faith in Torah scholars.
For secular and religious alike, the answer is to make a conscious effort to think for yourself. Don’t go with the crowd you happen to be with, and parrot everything they’re saying.
Think about whether something someone says makes sense to you and if it does not, ask them why it makes sense to them. And then think about it again.