Do not lick the boots of philosophers.
Find me a man who has an opinion of his own, and I will show you one of the rarest men alive.
Unfortunately, most of our thoughts belong to others. We inherit them without question, though we think we originate them. Or perhaps we question inherited beliefs for a moment, but in the end, we accept them, and then convince ourselves that we “think critically”.
You read in the Bible time and time again that Christ taught as one having authority, not as the scribes and Pharisees. This is because the S&P had to constantly reference previous writers, commentaries, or other thinkers instead of presenting the people with their own, original thoughts. They rarely provided interpretation of the scripture that was the result of their own rational thinking. Christ taught things that were new and unique, and He did so in a Powerful way – through parables. Christ is His own thinker.
28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Matt 7:28-29
Many in the church fall into the same traps as the scribes and Pharisees. They have no original thoughts of their own. They refer to everyone but themselves and their own thinking.
What is worse is that many people tend to worship philosophers, even to the point of licking their boots. Never owning an opinion of their own.
This is especially true of people who pursue advanced degrees in theology. Many times, instead of gaining advanced biblical knowledge, these people lose the ability to think rationally and they outsource their need to think. They refer to philosophers and other thinkers. Worst of all, they develop the ability to rationalize any position they want to take. This is what “defending the thesis” teaches people, to find a way to defend even the most ridiculous ideas in the world and then be awarded a degree and require others to call them “doctor”. There is more to life than licking the boots of philosophers.
Learn to develop your own opinions and thoughts.
Instead of constantly looking to others, look to God, the Bible, and lastly your own thinking. Build trust in yourself by determining your opinion first before relying on someone else’s. This will feel unnatural, but you must resist the urge to outsource your thinking to someone else. The majority of the religious world does this, which is not acceptable.
Do not deify philosophers just because they are popular. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle contributed much to the world, but they did not have it all figured out. they would want you to rationally think through their teaching rather than just accept them blindly.
In fact, it was Aristotle who said the following:
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
This is your task – develop the ability to entertain a thought without accepting it. Be able to chew your intellectual food without swallowing it. Become a “wine taster of ideas, who sips wine, swirls it in the mouth, but spits it out in the end. Not every idea is valuable just because it came from someone who wrote obscure philosophy that is difficult to understand.
Resist the urge to lick the boots of philosophers.
Command your own thinking and learn to rely more on yourself. As you trust your own thought processes, your own original thoughts will become more powerful and begin to surface in your life. Simply develop the strength to trust yourself.
