Science and religion series concludes with look at Godliness and labor

Rev. Tim Kiser, professor and chaplain at Missouri Valley College, speaks during Monday's third and final installment of this year's Science and Religion lecture series. [Click to enlarge]

Had the ancient Greeks put their technological inventions to a different use, who knows how far along we'd be as a society -- technologically?

Monday evening, the final session in a three-part series titled "Science and Religion," was held at Missouri Valley College. The series finale focused on "Godliness and Work" and featured campus chaplain and professor Tim Kiser, and professor of Greek and Latin James Crozier.

"The ancient Greeks devised machinery and methods for what could have been used for the benefit of humankind, but didn't do that," Kiser said. "We gave examples of steam turbine engines, [for instance]. The Greeks had devised ways of using them, but only for their enjoyment. They didn't … use it for manufacturing or farming because they didn't need to. They didn't need to worry about saving man-hours because they had all these slaves. They also knew about wind power and they were already using that on their ships. But they had no need or desire to look beyond that."

Kiser went on to say that Crozier, an expert in the field of Greeks and Latins, talked at length about how the upper echelon of the Greek heirachy frowned upon manual labor.

"Dr. Crozier spent a lot of time telling how they avoided [menial chores]," Kiser said. "The elites looked down their noses at people who had to get on the ground and dig around because they had people to do it for them."

Kiser, co-creator of the series, along with chemistry professor Steve Patton, added that the three-part seminar's intended purpose was to inform both Missouri Valley students and area residents who attended any of the three sessions that science and religion are linked topics that can not be separated.

"The goal is to express to people that we cannot separate science and religion," Kiser said. "Like philosophy and religion, they go hand-in-hand. Again, it goes back to our first presentation, particularly for our students, to understand this interconnected relationship between all the divisions in a liberal arts college."

Kiser added that he and Patton also had another purpose for the seminar.

"God has created all of us and he has given us the intellect, imagination and creativity to be able to create these things and hopefully it is to glorify God and that's what Steve and I hoped to do," he said. "God has created us and given us the ability to use knowledge that we have been able to obtain and now, will we use it to glorify God? I think that's probably been the first and main goal."

Contact Eric Coley at

marshallfaith@socket.net