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Kollektomat Tithing Machine
Card-based transactions are everywhere it seems. The “Kollektomat,” enabling tithing by card, at the Filadelfia church in Stockholm, is shown below. Only 15 percent of the donations to the church are cash.
(Kollektomat)
Roger Zelazny wrote great science fiction, and elegantly predicted the use of technology in religion, using Hinduism as the baseline. Keep in mind that this quote from Lord of Light (1965) predates ATMs and other similar devices:
It was a machine, gleaming and metallic, before which they moved.A man inserted a coin into the mouth of a steel tiger. The machine began to purr. He pressed buttons cast in the likenesses of animals and demons. There came then a flashing of lights along the lengths of the Nagas, the two holy serpents who twisted about the transparent face of the machine.
The man drew down upon the lever that grew from the side of the machine cast in the likeness of the tail of a fish.
Update 01-Feb-2025: (The Pray-o-Mat from 'Lord of Light' by Roger Zelazny) End update.A holy blue light filled the interior of the machine; the serpents pulsed redly; and there, in the midst of the light and a soft music that had begun to play a prayer wheel swung into view and began spinning at a furious pace.
The man wore a beatific expression.
(Read more about Zelazny's pray-o-mat)
Via NYTimes.
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