Tech billionaire Elon Musk has described a shift in his philosophical outlook, saying he now believes in God after previously identifying as an atheist. During an appearance on the Katie Miller podcast in Texas, Musk spoke about his current spiritual views and how they shape his understanding of existence.
When asked directly about his position on God, Musk replied,
“God is the creator.”
Pressed on whether that meant he genuinely believes, he added,
“Well, I believe there was this universe came for something. People have different labels.”
The comments reflect a change in how Musk talks about existence and consciousness. Throughout the interview, he returned to questions about awareness, creation and humanity’s role in the universe.
“I generally think like increasing the amount of consciousness in the universe is a good thing,”
Musk said.
“Trying to understand the nature of the universe, which you can only do by increasing conscious awareness.”
Musk connected these ideas to humanity’s long evolutionary arc. He traced life from single-celled organisms to complex beings and argued that becoming sustainably multiplanetary ranks among the most important moments in evolutionary history.
“You could evaluate any given civilization or any given life form on that scale,”
he said, placing multiplanetary life among the most significant achievements possible.
He also offered a cosmic perspective on human existence. Musk noted that the atoms making up a human body have likely been at the center of a star three or four times over the universe’s 13.8 billion year history and may experience that several more times in the future.
“In terms of existence as measured by the number of times your atoms will be at the center of a star, we seem to be roughly halfway,”
he said.
This outlook feeds into Musk’s interest in simulation theory, the idea that reality could be a computer simulation.
“If simulation theory is accurate,”
he said, explaining his reasoning,
“the most interesting outcome is the most likely,”
because uninteresting simulations would be shut down. He joked that
“we might be somebody’s video game or TV show,”
adding,
“We’re just going to keep it interesting so they don’t turn the computer off.”
Despite his belief in a creator, Musk said he has seen no evidence of extraterrestrial life.
“I have seen no evidence of aliens,”
he stated, adding that no one on SpaceX’s senior team has encountered such evidence either.
Musk framed his shift from atheism not as a rejection of science but as an acceptance of uncertainty. Rather than claiming definitive answers, he emphasized the unresolved mystery of existence itself, suggesting that consciousness gives rise to meaning and that questions of purpose remain open rather than settled.
