Long Walks

     “Powerful minds tend to complete their own investigations, once they’ve been given a reason to investigate at all.” – Pope Clement XV

     Relax, relax. Pope Francis hasn’t departed this life without you hearing about it, you news junkie, you. Clement XV is a character in one of my novels: the first American to be elevated to the Throne of Saint Peter. But he has a lot to say – no more citations here; read the BLEEP!ing book – and the above is a choice specimen of his wisdom.

     (I am truly blessed to have such intelligent, insightful, articulate characters writing my books. Can’t imagine what I’d do without them. Yet there are carpers who ask “When are you going to write something about ordinary people, huh?” Well, you can’t please everyone, and only a fool would try.)

     Every now and then, a figure prominent for huge secular achievements makes some news with his thoughts about religion or the supernatural. Most such emissions are pedestrian at best; celebrities rarely have anything of substance to say about such things, and most business leaders are too absorbed by business matters to spend time orating about religion and spirituality. But as he is in more ways than this one, Elon Musk is an exception to the pattern:

     For all of his pursuits, Musk isn’t generally thought of as theologian.
     With the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive’s recent political transformation, however, we are increasingly seeing Musk invoke religion as he discusses his worldviews on topics ranging from parenthood to freedom of speech.
     He has talked about his core beliefs several times this summer, including this past week when describing how he defines empathy and its place in governing.
     […]
     In 2022, a spiritual side began to emerge publicly as he acquired Twitter-turned-X. He turned more political, airing worries about liberal policies becoming too extreme.
     “A new philosophy of the future is needed,” Musk tweeted that summer. “I believe it should be curiosity about the Universe—expand humanity to become a multiplanet, then interstellar, species to see what’s out there.”
     A couple of minutes later, he followed up: “This is compatible with existing religions—surely God would want us to see Creation?”
     […]
     “While I’m not a particularly religious person,” Musk said, “I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise.”

     “Not a particularly religious person” covers a whole lot of people: by my lights, just about everyone not in Holy Orders (and quite a few subject to them). But that’s to the side. What I have in mind at the moment is expressed in the citation at the top of this piece.

     Once an authentically smart man starts thinking seriously about Christianity, there are only two places he can arrive:

1. Jesus of Nazareth was a nice guy who said a lot of nice things, but that’s all there is to it.
2. Jesus of Nazareth was what He claimed to be: the Son of God, with divine authority to pronounce a new and eternal Covenant between God and Man.

     The latter destination appears to prevail, at least among the smart men I’ve known – and that’s a pretty large collection, Gentle Reader.

     The thing to remember about smart people is that you mustn’t preach to them. You mustn’t press your case on them, no matter how important you believe your message to be. They react badly to it. I certainly did. Not only can they “complete their own investigations;” given a morsel or two of evidence, they most certainly will. It’s in the nature of the superior intellect.

     The route to acceptance of the Christian faith has been described as a journey. It has its mile markers, its roadside attractions, and its byways. The way is also stippled with seductive wrong turnings; no small number of inquirers have stumbled into one or another of those. But the key to the journey is that most of the way, one must walk alone. Companions, no matter how well-meaning, are a distraction from what really matters: the evidence and its implications.

     The way is forked. It’s entirely possible to walk its whole length and take the “Jesus was a nice guy but that’s all” turn-off. That does require dismissing a lot of evidence, but as I’ve written before, there’s always an alternate explanation for any irreproducible event. But smart men are aware of the laws of probability. As I wrote many years ago:

     The key narratives were almost two millennia old. They confirmed one another, but no non-Christian source confirmed them in their totality. They spoke of suspensions of the natural law — miracles — of a kind never before attributed to any figure. If they were true, that Figure had to stand above Man in the order of things. If it were so, He could not have been a temporal, goal-driven creature, for He had no agenda of His own. He traveled, taught, healed, suffered, died…and rose from the dead.
     Insight came upon him in a flash of blinding purity.
     Of course no non-Christian source would fully confirm the Gospels. Anyone who wrote objectively of the miracles, Passion, and Resurrection of Christ, reporting them as observed, well-testified facts, would have to be a Christian. He couldn’t do so otherwise. So the lack of non-Christian confirmations means nothing.
     It could all be true. It can’t be disproved. All it requires is that I allow that there might be a God — a Being above and apart from temporal reality, to which temporal reality is subject. There could be. That can’t be disproved either.
     Men went to horrible deaths rather than renounce it. Many men.

     Let the smart man walk the way by himself. Once his feet are on the path, he’ll reach the end one way or another.

     May God bless and keep you all.