McCandless the agnostic monk

Chris McCandless reminds me of the stories of great religious figures who traveled through the wilderness in search of truth.

John the Baptist, for example, who lived in the wild and ate "locusts and wild honey."  Or St. Jerome, who lived in a cave as a hermit, and translated the Bible into Latin.  Or Muhammed, who journeyed through the desert of Arabia to bring his prophecy - the teachings that became Islam, a religion of over a billion people - to the holy city of Mecca.

Now, McCandless does not seem to have been religious himself - I don't recall McCandless indicating any religious beliefs, at any rate.  However, I wonder if the history of religion can help us understand McCandless.  As the epigraph to Chapter 4 notes, "prophets" go into the desert - was McCandless seeking a truth, just as prophets did?