Truth must be investigated independently.
No clergy: each believer must see with their own eyes, not through their neighbor's.
Independent investigation of truth means that Bahá'ís are required to examine claims themselves rather than inherit them, and it has practical consequences: children are not counted as members until they declare at fifteen, and there is no clergy to interpret on anyone's behalf. The tension the community lives with is that this individual freedom operates alongside a strong covenant defining who may authoritatively interpret Bahá'u'lláh's writings — and challenges to that authority are the one thing that gets a Bahá'í expelled.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideasSign in to open the first thread. Everything here is attributed.