Think for Yourself

As Mike once wrote (and as I have written), there comes a time in every young person's life when they re-evaluate their beliefs. They re-evaluate everything from their moral code to their relational behaviour to their spiritual beliefs. Suffice it to say that the person that went into the teenage years is certainly not the same person that comes out it.

As children, we learn and accept what others teach us. This is a good and necessary thing, of course (though either extreme is still dangerous). As the child grows into an adult, they must develop an independant will and their own personal views. The word of authorities is still needed, whether intellectual authority or otherwise, but now the balance shifts to the youth accepting or rejecting such authority out of their own free will.

The question is, what tools should we use to carve our individual identities and our personal beliefs?

Some would say that critical thought is the key tool in this personal growth (and for future growth). Take a second to visit that link and just briefly scan the topics. As that site attests, the principles of logic are not the easiest tools to master. I hardly claim to have mastered these principles, but I certainly do try to learn and apply them as well as I can. I often like to use this site to quickly test my own arguments about any particular issue.

Critical thought is important, even if it is difficult to master. It's easy to assume that we know how to make wise and intelligent decisions in our lives, but have you ever tested and reviewed how you learn things in the first place? Have you tested how you originally decided to live by so many of your personal principles?

I have related thoughts that I'll post on this issue later this week, but I'll leave this here for a few days in the meantime. Let me close with two comments. First, we're not as smart as we think we are. Second, critical thought is only one tool and it may not be the most useful one.