During a recent interview with Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk discussed his views on religion, describing himself as a “cultural Christian” and saying he strongly believes in the principles of Christianity.
“While I’m not a particularly religious person, I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise and that there’s tremendous wisdom in turning the other cheek,” Musk said.
“I’m actually a big believer in the principles of Christianity. I think they’re very good.”
“In what sense then are you not religious?” Peterson asked. “[Richard] Dawkins just came out three weeks ago, or thereabouts, and announced that he was a cultural Christian–“
“Right, I would say I’m probably a cultural Christian,” Musk replied, noting that he was baptised and raised as an Anglican.
Of course, by describing Jesus as a good and wise teacher, Musk has plunged himself headfirst into C.S. Lewis’ “Liar-Lord-or-Lunatic” dilemma.
According to Lewis, if Jesus is not Lord, then he must be viewed either as a liar or as a lunatic. There is no other option. We can’t disconnect what Jesus said about forgiveness and love from what He said about Himself.
Lewis writes:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to…. Now it seems obvious to me that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Musk may not be far from the Kingdom. And he’s not alone either. There are many out there like him.
As the “post-Christian” Western world continues to spiral into absolute absurdity, the very real fact that there are only two options before us will become increasingly evident to many: It’s Christ or chaos.
But unless we have the root, the genuine acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as Lord over all things, we can’t expect to reap the fruit, namely, that superior culture that Christianity produces.
“Cultural Christianity” is the product of the Christian faith, the blessing that follows a faithful collective commitment to the Truth. It does not, and cannot, emerge in a vacuum.
If Christianity goes, the whole culture goes.
We can’t have the benefits without the substance. We can’t have the effects without the cause. We can’t have the fruit without the tree.
By all means, we should laud the positive impacts of Christianity on societies, but we cannot disconnect Western greatness from that which once made the West great: The acknowledgement that Jesus Christ is Lord.
