Peter Thiel, the highly successful tech entrepreneur and author, discusses his mentor Rene Girard; the Bible, how we read it, and how it reads us; Jesus’ death and resurrection; atheism and the limitless escalation of violence towards apocalypse.

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Outline:

(00:43) The Bible reads us

(02:02) Cain and Abel vs. Romulus and Remus

(06:05) Cross vs Resurrection

(07:26) The Gospels are different from Death of Socrates

(09:04) The Bible is discontinuous from pagan classics

(11:30) "The idea that victims exist comes from Judeo-Christianity and nowhere else."

(14:54) Was Nietzsche somehow extremely close to the truth of Christianity?

(17:18) Pagan Pharmakoi, the ancient sacrificial medicine

(19:48) Fascism and Communism

(23:00) Girard on the Woes against the Pharisees

(26:02) The cycle that leads to apocalypse

(31:11) Steven Pinker and the story of progress

(32:19) Is an apocalypse, such as a nuclear war, inevitable?

(35:10) Being too sanguine about apocalypse makes it more likely

(42:08) Is there an off-ramp? What would it look like? If we don't know, shouldn't we at least try to figure it out?

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Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY2EUl_3ncA

Peter Thiel: On the Bible (Meeting of Minds with Jerry Bowyer, 2021)

Peter Thiel Audio