Berlin(June 09, 2017): A robot priest that beams lights from its hands and grants automated ‘blessings’ to people is being met with mixed reactions at a church in Germany.
The robot, called BlessU-2, was developed by the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau. With its metallic body and touch screen, the robot asks a person what blessing they want, after which it raises its arms and appears to smile.
Lights then start to flash as the robot says “God bless and protect you” and recites a biblical verse. After the blessing, the user can printout the dictum.
“It is an experiment that is supposed to inspire discussion,” Sebastian von Gehren, a spokesperson from the church tells that the robot was deliberately not given a human-like appearance.
However, the robot is being met with mixed reactions. Some churchgoers think it’s great while others say they “cannot imagine a blessing from a machine.”
One woman visiting the church tells the Mirror that while the robot is interesting, it lacks the human touch. “The machine should not replace the blessing of a pastor,” clarifies Von Gehren.
In addition, the robot was launched in the historic town of Wittenberg to mark 500 years since German priest Martin Luther published ‘The 95 Theses’ – a work widely acknowledged to have sparked the Protestant Reformation.
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