Many momentous
arguments have been made for and against the existence of a
Creator, an entity which Theists typically call "
God" (and which
Pandeists may be inclined to call "the Creator" or "the
Deus" or "
Source").
To this I add something new, something which is not exactly one of those, but is orthogonal to such a one: the Argumentum ad @ElonMusk. This is not a proof about the Creator so much as it is a proof about proof, essentially a variation from the
argument from authority. Specifically, it goes a little something like this:
1. Whatever your opinion of his views and actions,
Elon Musk is the
wealthiest man in the world, and has been at the forefront of technological advances that have shifted the entire
paradigm of all
human society.
2. Millions of people have aspired to do these things, to gain such wealth and effect such change, and failed -- even when beginning from a vastly greater
education and with superior
resources.
It can thusly be inferred that Elon Musk is exceptionally
able and
intelligent to these great ends.
(I know some will seek here to point out relative
advantages which even Elon Musk in fact had, but this is itself a relative point. Even if it's true that Elon Musk had access to millions more dollars at a young age than the typical person, there are people who have started life with hundreds of millions or
billions of dollars, and were never able to reach the same heights.)
3. But it is known as well from
interviews and
statements, that -- though Elon Musk is
not an
Atheist -- he rejects the critical and fundamental metaphysical tenets of
Christianity,
Islam, and various other major
world religions.
See, as an example, his
July 28, 2022 Medium.com interview,
Elon Musk suggests a new religion: The billionaire turns prophet?
For example, though Elon Musk believes
Jesus existed as a person, he does not deem it an historical fact that Jesus ever saw
resurrection from
death, and Elon Musk denies that
belief in Jesus is necessary for
salvation. Nor does he except
Muhammad as his prophet, for that matter.
4. From his early
childhood on, many people over the course of his life and all over the world have sought to persuade Elon Musk to adopt precisely some such set of beliefs. And yet any arguments which they have deployed to this end have been unpersuasive to Elon Musk.
And indeed, I have observed myself that it's odd that people all over
social media so frequently try to get
me (a simple
raindrop on the muddied ground of human endeavors) to convert to their
religion, when they could obviously effect so much greater of an
impact for the faring of their
faith by simply seeking to convert such vastly more influential anti-theistic thinkers as Elon Musk and
Scott Adams. Indeed, anybody who successfully fully converted Elon Musk to a theistic religion would be giving that religion its biggest boon in a
generation, and instantly setting it up for
magnification of every success it has ever had in the whole of its
history.
Conclusion: one of the most able and intelligent people in the world -- perhaps, in the history of the world -- has rejected, the arguments claimed to support the various theological propositions.
Surely any person may trust the intellect and echo the
judgment of Elon Musk on this point. Thusly, any person who is not a Theist (or specifically not a member of an especial theistic faith) may safely withhold agreement with any argument which has failed to persuade Elon Musk, until such argument has done so.
As a final
qualification -- I (nor any Pandeist I know of) have never had a direct opportunity to seek to persuade Elon Musk of the
logic of
Pandeism, so we don't yet know how successful such a persuasive effort would be. But we do note that the
philosophy he himself proposes in the linked article has pandeistic qualities -- right down to invoking the philosophical
lineage of
Spinoza!!