Prayer for our So Smart World

Thank you God for giving us
minds that think and ideas that soar.
Thank you for giving us language and writing,
and prosperity that enables education for many.
Thank you for brilliant inventors who created
technological marvels; radio waves radiating,
microscopes magnifying, computers computing.
Thank you that we have even created artificial intelligence
and robots that do work for us and with us.
Today we pray for good things gone bad;
for social media tools that isolate us from our neighbour,
for algorithms that misinform us about our world,
for face-recognition surveillance that curtail freedoms,
and for weapons that can track and kill half a world away.
In our smartness, we have created killing robots,
and now the world is poised on the new frontier
of autonomous weapons.
Hear our prayer this advent season.
Give scientists insight and politicians wisdom
as they negotiate treaties for weapons
we have only begun to imagine.
We feel so smart, but we need the help
of angels with a message of peace on earth.
Let their song ring out this year,
a global anthem for an end to war, against all odds.
You plant that song in each of us,
and in the hearts of every child born on earth. Amen.