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Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

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Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#61

“Who was the Antichrist? When would he arrive? What would he preach? What kind of SaaS offerings will he want to invest in?”

The funniest part about this is that he either IS or is good friends with the Antichrist he claims is returning.

What sort of mental gymnastics would be required to not only convince yourself the end of days is here, but that it's not directly being caused by the guy who is indiscriminately bombing foreign countries and spends each morning have a group of evangelical zealots call him the chosen one while praying on him.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#62
post #17

If he was on a park bench covered in his own piss no one would pay any attention to the same words.

Unfortunately, he's not on a park bench covered in his own piss and is instead the puppet master behind the VP of the US and a large chunk of the tech sector.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#63
post #42

I grew up in a pretty religious household and my parents fully believed that Armageddon would happen in our lifetime. It wasn't until I was older that I realized there were a lot of American Christians that secretly held this belief, and that it has a meaningful influence on how voters want American politicians to deal with Israel and the Middle East in general.

Out of curiosity, what grounds their belief that it's going to happen soon? Why not in a thousand years? As far as I know, there is no mention of the exact date in the Bible.

No, but even the first christians believed they were living in the end times. It's been believed for 2000 years.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#64

Behind the Bastards did a good two-parter on Thiel's lectures. He sounds dangerously insane. It'd be bad enough if he was just some random crank, but the fact he's got the level of power and influence needed to actually make his beliefs happen makes it exponentially worse. Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtR7ny9TuCY Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXhyx-vVG_Y

Genuine questions: what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? Who should take into their hands the job to stop him, and to what lengths should they push themselves?

Not agreeing as a society that money == speech would be a good start.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#65
post #26

I grew up in a pretty religious household and my parents fully believed that Armageddon would happen in our lifetime. It wasn't until I was older that I realized there were a lot of American Christians that secretly held this belief, and that it has a meaningful influence on how voters want American politicians to deal with Israel and the Middle East in general.

It depends on the religion in the religious household. Its common among American evangelicals, but (unless American Catholics are very different from Catholics in the rest of the world) its not a common belief among Catholics, and its rarely discussed by them. Why is Thiel, whose parents were American evangelical and whose own beliefs are described as "heterodox", trying to sell this in Catholic packaging outside the…

It is not even a universal belief among evangelicals. The denomination/overall group Peter Hegseth is part of (conservative Reformed Christianity) expressly teaches against this, or even makes fun of it.

I would venture that it is less than half of Christians who believe in this idea at all. It does seem to be the domain of wild eyed TV evangelists though.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#66

I grew up in a pretty religious household and my parents fully believed that Armageddon would happen in our lifetime. It wasn't until I was older that I realized there were a lot of American Christians that secretly held this belief, and that it has a meaningful influence on how voters want American politicians to deal with Israel and the Middle East in general.

I grew up in a religious household as a Roman Catholic, in an extremely religious country(Poland) and I've never heard anyone talk about apocalypse as something that might happen soon or well...ever. From my point of view, the "christianity" that American Evangelicals practice is almost unrecognizable as having the same base with the religion I grew up with. Like the core tennets of Jesus have been twisted and warped…

It’s almost like they reject the parts of the bible featuring Christ, and only cling on to the Old Testament and the parts after Christ as their guide.

In lack of a better word, that sounds more like anti-Cristian

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#67
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>its not a common belief among Catholics, and its rarely discussed by them. I'll do you one further, as someone from a deeply catholic country: Considering the triggering of Armaggedon in daily politics is seen as batshit crazy.

American Catholics aren't really a monolith on this matter...or any. There are substantial differences between Catholics who seek out Jesuit parishes and those who seek out the Tridentine Mass and people who are just achieving physical presence and thinking about kickoff at 5:00 PM Sunday Mass to fulfill obligation and get out ASAP (no choir please, keep that sermon snappy). All of these are spiritually valid approac…

It remains a fact, though, that the Catholic Church doesn’t teach these things about Armageddon.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#68
post #42

I grew up in a pretty religious household and my parents fully believed that Armageddon would happen in our lifetime. It wasn't until I was older that I realized there were a lot of American Christians that secretly held this belief, and that it has a meaningful influence on how voters want American politicians to deal with Israel and the Middle East in general.

Out of curiosity, what grounds their belief that it's going to happen soon? Why not in a thousand years? As far as I know, there is no mention of the exact date in the Bible.

It's a Pascal's wager. If you're convinced Armageddon is going to happen at some point, then you should do all you can to prepare for it happening in your lifetime. And that approach is explicitly encouraged in the Bible: "You do not know the day or hour", etc.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#69
post #26

I grew up in a pretty religious household and my parents fully believed that Armageddon would happen in our lifetime. It wasn't until I was older that I realized there were a lot of American Christians that secretly held this belief, and that it has a meaningful influence on how voters want American politicians to deal with Israel and the Middle East in general.

It depends on the religion in the religious household. Its common among American evangelicals, but (unless American Catholics are very different from Catholics in the rest of the world) its not a common belief among Catholics, and its rarely discussed by them. Why is Thiel, whose parents were American evangelical and whose own beliefs are described as "heterodox", trying to sell this in Catholic packaging outside the…

[deleted]

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#70
post #45

Some reporting on the contents of the speech from last year: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-... It's suitably insane rambling nonsense. It actually seems to dovetail pretty well with Andreesen's manifesto in that evil is portrayed as anyone who opposed relentless technological progress at any cost. If you worry about the economic or human effects of tech oligarchs (Grete Thunberg is named…

“People who oppose what I want to do are the antichrist” is one step away from “I’m Jesus!”, which is something you normally hear in mental wards.
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