Elon Musk used to dismiss the idea of an all-powerful God that judged the actions of individual humans — the type of pronouncement that made him a hero for the atheist community.
“There’s certainly things we don’t understand about the universe, but I’m less convinced that there’s some superconsciousness watching over our every movement and kind of evaluating it against some criteria and deciding whether we’re going to go to one place or another when we die,” he told “The Office” star Rainn Wilson (yes, really) in a 2013 interview. “I think that’s unlikely.”
“If there’s some superconsciousness, where did the superconsciousness come from?” he pondered further. “So I think the most likely explanation is that complexity evolved from simplicity, that simple elements over time combined to become more complex and arrive at what we are.”
Now it sounds like Musk’s thinking has evolved: after fully committing himself and tens of millions of his dollars to getting former president Donald Trump reelected, Musk is now pandering to the Christian right.
During a Pennsylvania town hall last week, he claimed that he now believes in the “teachings of Christ,” including the principles “‘love thy neighbor’ and ‘Turn the other cheek,’ which is very important for forgiveness.”
Musk also took aim at the Middle East, arguing that the “endless cycle of violence” there was because they didn’t “forgive the transgressions of others” — instead of how most historians would frame the conflict as the disastrous effects of European colonialism echoing through history, like in Musk’s native South Africa.
The remarks highlight Musk’s rapidly changing political and social alignment. Following his acquisition of Twitter, the billionaire has repeatedly made it clear that his ideology has shifted to the far right. He’s also spent much of the last two years evangelizing the teachings of Christianity.
“Jesus taught love, kindness and forgiveness,” he wrote in a late 2022 tweet. “I used to think that turning the other cheek was weak and foolish, but I was the fool for not appreciating its profound wisdom.”
Musk has stopped short of claiming that he believes in God specifically, claiming that he’s “not a particularly religious person,” during a live-streamed chat with far-right pundit Jordan Peterson earlier this year when he said that “I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise.”
But despite claiming that he believes in loving thy neighbor and turning the other cheek — harmless ideas that many Christians do embrace — his actions tell a dramatically different story.
Musk has a long track record of demonizing the trans community, including his daughter, going on crass and racist tirades, furthering debunked anti-immigrant conspiracies, treating canvassers of his political action committee like dirt, firing workers at his companies on essentially no grounds, turning a blind eye to systemic racism at Tesla’s factories, and reportedly forbidding his own children from meeting their grandmother.
He even wore a Baphomet costume with massive upside-down crosses on Halloween in 2022.
We could go on and on — but to hear him suggest that he believes in the of Jesus Christ, who deeply opposed wealth inequality and supported the poor and outcasts is almost beyond parody.
What’s far more likely is that the billionaire was attempting to score points with the crowd during the town hall last week by playing into the religious beliefs of those with enough of a stomach to support the reelection of a convicted felon and compulsive liar whose platform is built on the cruel treatment of underprivileged groups like immigrants and gender minorities.
At the end of the day, the thing that determines the direction of Musk’s moral compass seems to be money. Musk has flip-flopped on a number of issues, from content moderation on Twitter to climate change, highlighting his changing belief system that’s swayed most of all by the pursuit of profit.
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