Imagine, in the emptiness of space depicted above, a small craft carrying a solitary human streaking on a journey, traveling among planets, asteroids and even distant stars. Each of these heavenly bodies exerts the force of gravity, pulling the hurtling ship first one way, then the other. Sometimes these forces are faint and subtle, other times great.
Yet the lonely space craft, carrying its single passenger, manages to avoid being captured by any of these huge objects. To be captured, to fall into the orbit of any, would constitute failure. Instead, the voyager hurtles onward, heading who knows where, intent on never becoming a captive of any of these overpowering objects, all of which threaten the traveler’s independence.
We all travel, as we journey from birth to whatever end awaits us, through a world filled with beliefs of all kinds – religions, ideologies, political movements, social causes. Each seeks to draw us into its orbit, each evangelizes for its own view of the world and of life. “Come and join us,” its followers say, gesturing to all the people who have embraced their particular belief, hoping that we too will join.
Yet for some autonomy is a great prize. They may feel the pull of a distant faith, of a nearby ideology, and even recognize its virtues. Yet they refuse to surrender. They resist the entreaties of those who proclaim, “You have to believe in something,” or “You’ve got to have a cause.”
“But what of the dangers?” the solitary voyager asks, knowing that beliefs, even the best-intentioned, can be the occasion for terrible events. Combined with humanity’s native intolerance, with our frequent hostility toward the outsider, any idea that gains a following can at times produce a toxic mix of prejudice, fanaticism, and occasionally even violence.
It is a form of skepticism, this desire to remain uncommitted, to live independently of the many ideas that surround us in our journey through life. The philosopher Friederich Nietzsche, one of humanity’s most famous solitary voyagers, laid out the choice he believed we all face. “If you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire”.
Few choose Nietzsche’s lonely path of inquiry where truth is elusive. Most of us settle into orbit around an idea already established, a truth already revealed, one that offers community and peace of soul. For those who follow Jesus, that way has been set out by Augustine in his Confessions. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
