Q: Is this sort of a new Techno-Dispensationalism of the elites?
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies.... 2 Peter 2:1
"For about a year now, Peter Thiel—billionaire tech investor, devout Christian, major GOP kingmaker—has been publicly laying out his understanding of Biblical prophecies and how he thinks the world might end.
We reviewed his recent lectures to piece together Thiel’s theological theories. First, existential risks will present themselves in the form of nuclear war, environmental disaster, dangerously engineered bioweapons and even autonomous AI-guided killer robots.
As humans race toward a last battle—the Armageddon—a one-world government will form, promising peace and safety.
In Thiel’s reckoning, this totalitarian authoritarian regime, with real teeth and real power, will be the coming of the modern-day Antichrist.
Raised in an evangelical Christian household,...However, the fundamentalism often associated with evangelicalism did not permanently hold the intellectually restless Thiel. His journey toward a more heterodox faith began in earnest during his time at Stanford University. It was here, amidst the secular environment of a top-tier academic institution, that his faith was not lost but transformed. He studied philosophy, and it was during this period that he encountered the work that would become the cornerstone of his adult Christian worldview: the mimetic theory of French Catholic theologian and historian René Girard. This intellectual evolution marked a significant departure from his early religious instruction, setting him on a path to articulate a version of Christianity that was uniquely his own. Mimetic Theory can be broken down into a few core concepts: Mimetic Desire: Girard argued that human desire is not original but imitative. We learn to want things because other people want them. This creates a powerful, often unconscious, dynamic of rivalry and competition. Thiel sees this everywhere, from Silicon Valley startup culture to geopolitical conflict.
The Scapegoat Mechanism: When mimetic rivalry escalates to thepoint of societal crisis, communities instinctively and unconsciously resolve the tension by uniting against a single individual or group the scapegoat. This victim is blamed for the crisis, and their expulsion or sacrifice brings a temporary, fragile peace. Thiel applies this lens to understand everything from ancient myths to modern social media mobs.
The Uniqueness of the Gospels: For Girard, and by extension Thiel, the story of Christ’s crucifixion is the ultimate revelation and subversion of the scapegoat mechanism.
Unlike ancient myths that tell the story from the perspective of the persecuting crowd, the Gospels tell it from the perspective of the innocent victim.
They expose the scapegoat mechanism for what it is: the murder of an innocent. This act, in Girard’s view, makes the old ways of achieving social peace through sacrifice obsolete and reveals a new path based on forgiveness and non-violence.
This Girardian framework allows Thiel to see the world in a specific way. It informs his critique of competition (which he views as destructive mimetic rivalry) and his belief in the power of “secrets” (truths that are not subject to mimetic consensus).
His commitment to these ideas is not just theoretical.
Through his Thiel Foundation, he established the Imitatio project, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting and researching Girard’s work, ensuring its continued study and application.
In 2017, Thiel married his long-term partner, Matt Danzeisen, in a ceremony in Vienna, Austria. Danzeisen is a portfolio manager at Thiel Capital, and the two share a professional as well as a personal life.
Thiel’s most famous business axiom, laid out in his book Zero to One, is a direct application of his religious and philosophical views. He argues that competition is for losers and that entrepreneurs should strive to build monopolies. This isn’t just a ruthless business tactic; it’s a Girardian insight. For Thiel, “perfect competition” is a state of destructive mimetic rivalry where companies imitate each other into oblivion, fighting over scraps of profit.
A monopoly, by contrast, is a company that has discovered a unique “secret” a truth that no one else sees.
By creating something new, it escapes the destructive cycle of imitation.
His critique of established institutions, from universities to governments, can be seen through the scapegoat mechanism lens, viewing them as ossified systems that create conflict and persecute outsiders to maintain their own power.
He is an eschatological thinker, meaning he is profoundly interested in the “end times.” He injects ancient theological concepts—the scapegoat, the Antichrist, the apocalypse into conversations about artificial intelligence, global politics, and the future of civilization. " WallStreetJournal/ReligionInfo
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