Baha'is believe that God has given every human being the faculty of investigation through which she or he can recognize and understand truth. God has endowed women and men with the ability to discern the message of reality; God has conferred each individual with the gift of reason. Our unique intellectual characteristic enables us to discover, investigate, and integrate absolute truths from our unique and relative perspectives into our daily lives. No person is intended to see through the eyes of another, hear through another's ears, nor comprehend with another's brain. Each human creature has individual endowment, power, and responsibility in the creative plan of God.

It is for these reasons that there is no clergy in the Baha'i Faith.

Tradition for its own sake encourages the blind, unquestioning repetition of ceremony. The ways and customs of our ancestors should indeed be studied, documented, and oftentimes honored. A thorough understanding of our historical, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds illuminates our personal heritages and informs the reality of our ongoing identity development. When this respect for tradition is balanced by the full and creative use of our rational powers, the result is the evolution and advancement of civilization.