The goal is to lessen dissonance, or to live in the fullest accord with what you believe.
The secular Buddhists (Steve Hagen, Stephen Batchelor) emphasize the fact that Buddhism is devoid of belief. The only thing that counts is direct experience, which alone is conferred authority.

Teachers of this path encourage the neophyte to jump in and try it. If it doesn’t work, all you have to do is stop. Meditate and test what you’ve been instructed. It you find that works, here’s something else you might try, and if that works, there’s more to try. But if it doesn’t resonate, if it doesn’t accord with who you are, then quit as you won’t benefit from it.

We of the Western religious approach are taught to distrust personal experience. Authority lies beyond the self and must be sought outside it: in books, in codes of law, in teachers who have imbibed the Truth and are deemed reliable to transmit it. Whether it works or not is irrelevant. You’re ordered to enslave yourself to God because he is your Master, a fact that accords little consideration for the slave.

Here are some problems with that approach. What if the thing outside of you fails to deliver the meaning you’re looking for? Once the book, or tradition, or God, fails to deliver, you’re left with what business gurus refer to as an opportunity. Things didn’t work out the way you thought they might; now there’s an opening, or a void—an opportunity! You just have to try harder, surrender on a deeper level, pray for direction, study longer. The thing outside of you will become more manifest if you persist. But since the thing sought is utterly unknown and unapproachable on a practical level, good luck figuring out when you’ve made progress getting in touch with it.