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Good morning. If it’s your birthday today – happy birthday! Did you know that you shared it with Girolamo Cardano? Born in 1501, he was an Italian polymath famous for his solutions to both the cubic and quartic equations. In fact, Girolamo Cardano was not just a mathematician; he was also the first person to have given a clinical description of typhus fever.. Cardano would never have guessed that cubic equations are used widely in Elliptic Curve Cryptography, providing security to computer networks. You’ve probably used them yourself today on your phone or PC without realizing it. 

Knowledge in itself is neither a good nor a bad thing – it’s the use that we put it to that matters. We can use an in-depth knowledge of network security to transfer money securely from one bank account to another. But on the other hand we could use it to hack into email accounts and cause widespread distress, to steal someone else’s identity or even swing the balance of an election. And so our society needs an education system which not only produces brilliant scientists, linguists, artists and mathematicians, but also ethicists and religious leaders who can provide a moral compass.

Father God,We thank you for the gifts of intelligence and creativity. We pray today for scientists all round the world who are working so hard to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. We ask that you might bless their work, and the work of all those who use their intelligence, creativity and skill to come up with new ways of making our society a better, safer and more just  place to live in.Amen