{"id":34335,"date":"2025-01-23T17:48:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T17:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T17:48:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:09:53","slug":"elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk Turns to the Teachings of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The billionaire Elon Musk has recently been invoking Christianity as he discusses core beliefs. Raised Anglican in South Africa, young Musk got an early taste of differing religious views attending a Jewish preschool. &ldquo;I was just singing &lsquo;Hava Nagila&rsquo; one day and `Jesus, I Love You&rsquo; the next,&rdquo; he jokes.<\/p>\n\n<p>As he grew older, Musk has said, he turned to the great religious books&mdash;the Bible, Quran, Torah, some Hindu texts&mdash;to deal with an existential crisis of meaning. And he looked to philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche.<\/p>\n\n<p>But not until the boy discovered science fiction, he says, did he begin to find what he was looking for. In particular, he says, it was the lesson he took away from the &ldquo;The Hitchhiker&rsquo;s Guide to the Galaxy&rdquo; that the purpose of life wasn&rsquo;t so much about finding the big answers but asking the right questions.<\/p>\n\n<p>&ldquo;The answer is the easy part,&rdquo; Musk said during a public event. &ldquo;The question is the hard part.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>Recent tweets have included: &ldquo;Jesus taught love, kindness, and forgiveness. I used to think that turning the other cheek was weak &amp; foolish, but I was the fool for not appreciating its profound wisdom.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>And: &ldquo;While I&rsquo;m not a particularly religious person, I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>Describing himself as &ldquo;cultural Christian,&rdquo; Musk indicated his guiding belief goes back to that of seeking greater understanding. &ldquo;That is my religion, for the lack of a better way to describe it, it&rsquo;s really a religion of curiosity,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The religion of greater enlightenment.&rdquo;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3478,3552,3573,3598,3727,3962,4149,4285,4441,4442,4643,4752,4798,4906,4907],"tax_ctp_topics":[384],"class_list":["post-34335","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-belief","tax_ctp_tags-celebrities","tax_ctp_tags-christ","tax_ctp_tags-christianity","tax_ctp_tags-curiosity","tax_ctp_tags-family-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-hinduism","tax_ctp_tags-islam","tax_ctp_tags-meaning","tax_ctp_tags-meaning-of-life","tax_ctp_tags-philosophy","tax_ctp_tags-questions","tax_ctp_tags-religion","tax_ctp_tags-seekers","tax_ctp_tags-seeking-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Elon Musk Turns to the Teachings of Jesus - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elon Musk Turns to the Teachings of Jesus - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The billionaire Elon Musk has recently been invoking Christianity as he discusses core beliefs. Raised Anglican in South Africa, young Musk got an early taste of differing religious views attending a Jewish preschool. &ldquo;I was just singing &lsquo;Hava Nagila&rsquo; one day and `Jesus, I Love You&rsquo; the next,&rdquo; he jokes. As he grew older, Musk Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-23T19:09:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/\",\"name\":\"Elon Musk Turns to the Teachings of Jesus - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-23T17:48:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-23T19:09:53+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Elon Musk Turns to the Teachings of Jesus\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Elon Musk Turns to the Teachings of Jesus - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/elon-musk-turns-to-teachings-of-jesus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Elon Musk Turns to the Teachings of Jesus - CT Pastors","og_description":"The billionaire Elon Musk has recently been invoking Christianity as he discusses core beliefs. 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