The thing is, I'm not even using the word ironically.

During Covid I began to listen to more podcasts with people like Jonathan Pageau. He's an intelligent and eloquent speaker on issues of truth, values, and belief.

Over time I have come to understand and appreciate his worldview, and therefore will give him the benefit of the doubt. When he begins to speak of eschatology, and refer to AI as the Moloch, I genuinely want to understand how someone could arrive at such a strange conclusion.

The truth of is that this type of “end of the world” mentality has been part of different religions forever. My armchair theory is predicting the demise of humanity is a form of protection for the ego. A way of trying to exercise agency over their ultimate fate. "I won't die, the world will end".

There are groups of people that appear to be scared and confused right now about many things in culture. And they are saying some pretty wacky things about technology as a result. While I have no issues with the church, the use of apocalyptic narratives to stoke unease in people who are already fragile is not helpful.