Thomas Griffin 9/16/24
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Jordan Peterson invited Elon Musk to join him on his show for the Daily Wire this July. They spoke for two hours on a variety of topics including artificial intelligence, Christianity, the state of the culture and Musk’ increased political involvement.
This conversation is important to follow because these are two of the brightest and most vocal proponents of the truth in the secular world. While their views are not equal to Christian doctrine their voices lead others closer to what the Church knows is right. Maybe, they are being drawn closer to God in the process.
In the earlier portion of the conversation, Peterson referenced the research he is currently doing for his new book on the Bible being released this November. His claim is that if society is not future oriented (God-driven) and oriented towards community it will deteriorate into power-seekers and pleasure-seekers. The individual would become about power and “all about what I want,” he claimed.
To be driven by the important things and oriented towards human flourishing is an accurate way of summarizing their conversation. The pursuit of truth and the common good must be at the forefront of human discovery. Whether it is politics, religion or artificial intelligence we must always be careful to place what the individual desires over and above what God had written into nature and what we can do to sacrifice for others. Religion, politics and AI must be grounded in objective truth and sacrificial love if they are to build up humanity rather than tear it down. While Musk and Peterson are not infallible when it comes to championing the truth, they did speak about several important topics for contemporary society.
For Elon Musk it all began as a young teenager. Musk said that when he was 11 or 12 years old he had an existential crisis because “there didn’t seem to be any meaning to the world or to life.” This crisis would later lead to his current world or life philosophy. He began to read the major religious texts at this young age. After reading the Bible, Koran and Hindu writings he began to read philosophy and he concluded that the atheistic philosophers didn’t have satisfying answers.
It was actually following the reading Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that Musk discovered something critical. His work was really philosophy disguised as humor, according to Musk but following the encounter with this work he concluded that you had to figure out the correct questions to answer in life in order to find meaning.
Douglas Adams said that we don’t really know all of the answers and we don’t even know what questions to ask. The billionaire entrepreneur said this was a fundamental moment in his life that grounds his entire philosophy and mindset. He desires to always be asking the right questions. This is what drives him to be on the adventure towards knowledge, “to arrive at a deeper understanding of the origins of the universe.” Musk said that “you could call this my religion…curiosity and the way of enlightenment.”
This is noble and is something we can learn much from. The success and intellect of a man of Elon’s stature should not be underestimated. However, his reasoning here is slightly incomplete. We can never come to know everything but we can come to know God. It is precisely the revelation of God, over time in the Sacred Scriptures and in the life of Christ, that allows human beings access to discovering who they are and whose they are.
Musk is on the right track, however. If he continues to ask the correct questions, he will encounter God like so many before him.
In regards to artificial intelligence, Elon Musk noted a large disagreement with Larry Page, the former “best friend” and co-founder and CEO of Google. Page’s view, Musk noted, is “that ultimately we will all upload our minds to the computer and everyone will just be robots.” Peterson responded strongly by noting, “there’s not much difference between that and the death of humanity.”
Musk strongly believes in the value of the human person as well as the importance of human beings having children and building a better world. For this reason, he believes that AI must be carefully utilized and not replace humanity but become a fantastic tool for its flourishing.
Throughout the entire conversation, Jordan Peterson invoked God, religion and the Bible, including references to Genesis, Job, the Sermon on the Mount, and sacrificial living to attempt to show the need for religious faith. He clearly portrayed a worldview of reality that is rooted in Biblical revelation. Although Musk rarely commented on the passages that Peterson referenced, they served as a basis for his talking points – especially when it came to the topic of human fulfillment.
Towards the final half-hour of their conversation Musk began using the phrase, “the Woke mind-virus” on several occasions. Peterson and Musk both attempt to fight against this “virus” in their work and commentary. Musk used this language to describe what happened with one of his children. Musk had a son who transitioned into a woman and began receiving treatment as a teenager. He noted that “no one ever explained to me that puberty blockers are sterilization drugs.”
Musk said that gender affirming care is a “terrible euphemism.” It truly is child mutilation until sterilization, he noted. “I lost my son,” he continued. “My son Xavier is dead, killed by the Woke mind-virus….I vowed to destroy the Woke mind-virus after that, and we are making some progress.”
These words brought the interview near a close but it also elevated the depth of the discussion. Musk appeared hurt and began to take more pauses in describing the details of what happened to his child. Since then, his child has spoken out to claim that Musk was an absent father and not a great dad.
This latter portion of the interview, and the conversation at-large pinpoints the importance of hearing from these successful and vocal men. However, behind every famous personality is a human heart that has hopes, dreams, fears and heartbreaks. Behind the fame remains a person who Jesus is inviting to follow him. While neither of these men are Catholic, they are clearly attempting to follow the good. Let us pray that they may more deeply encounter the living Christ, who is the truth that they (and all of us) seek.
Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a masters degree in theology and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine. He is the author of Let Us Begin: Saint Francis’s Way of Becoming Like Christ and Renewing the World.
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