Are there really free thinkers today, or is the claim that the religious don’t have “intellectual autonomy” just a mirror image of their own weakness, bombarded by a brainwashing media so subtle that they still think their minds are independent?
Most of us have probably heard the following rhetorical question or some variation of it from a non-observant friend acquaintance or relative: “What is this business of asking a rabbi about everything? Don’t you believe in being in charge of your own life? Don’t you have any intellectual autonomy? Shouldn’t you be making your own life choices? You don’t feel that it’s demeaning to your self-esteem to have a rabbi always telling you what to do? Even when it comes to voting in a democratic election you have to ask whether you should vote and whom to vote for? Isn’t that an insult to your intelligence?”
A good question. I’ve heard it often and like a good Jew I regularly answer it with a question:
“Well how do you go about making a decision?”
“How? I consider the issue rationally. I analyze it carefully looking at all the angles and then I decide what seems best to do. I don’t go running to rabbis asking them to decide for me.”
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