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Science frightens some Fundamentalists (and non-believers as well). Christian theology does not stand up well to scientific logic, or logic in general. The Christian God spent all His time focused on Earth and threw the rest of the universe in as an afterthought. Day and Night happened, obviously, on the first Day of creation, but the sun and moon appear only on the fourth Day of creation. Smerdyakov, in Dostoyevsky's "The Brother's Karamazov," realizes this as a child and asks his teacher "where did the light came from before that" and he answered with a slap across the face.

The idea of our solar system condensing out of gases, and that the carbon of our bodies could only be born in the heart of a supernova, does not fit literally into the poetic opening that Genesis One describes.

The periodic table is one of the greatest triumphs of science.

Since the Greeks, people had pondered the material world and knew some elements: carbon, sulphur, iron, copper, silver, gold , mercury, tin, and lead. That's all they knew 2400 years ago. And it was Aristotle, not the Bible, that said there were four elements: earth, water, air and fire.

By the time of the American Revolution, the list of elements had grown. Franklin flew his kite and electricity was all the rage. The New elements were: hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, cobalt, nickel, zinc, arsenic, antimony, platinum, bismuth. And by the way, along the way people had figured out that the earth orbited the sun and not the other way around. And then in 1803, Dalton made a break-through and chemistry was no longer alchemy as the first equations of chemistry were put to the test with these elements. The constituents of table salt, sodium and chloride, were not recognized as elements. Salt was certainly known, except no one knew what it was made of. How strange not to know that?

People measured like crazy. How much did an element seem to weigh? How did it combine? Was it a solid, liquid, or gas? Could it be melted or boiled and at what temperature? How dense was it? Strangely, the various elements combined in fixed rations called "definite proportions," kind of like saying "round number ratios. And if one member of a group of similar substances was substituted, the round number ratio would be the same. For example, chlorine gas and bromine gas are physically very similar. Combining sodium with chlorine produced sodium chloride. Combining sodium with bromine produced bromium chloride - both salts. Each gas combined with sodium to produce a salt, which is not a gas. How strange.

Mendeleev pondered the problem and he kept each element on a file card. Each card had all the physical properties of the element. This was in the late 1860's and he spent time on the train, traveling and he played a lot of solitaire on the long trips where one arranged cards by suit - spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs and if one card is missing, a player knows to wait for it.

While on a ride he got to thinking and laid out the elements like that. Lo! Eight "atomic suits." And with "holes." The power of the model became into being. There were missing "cards," that is elements, and from the properties of family, this missing "card" could be deduced. For example, if there was an "8 of clubs" and "10 of clubs," there had to be a "9 of clubs." The race was on!

Yes! Now people were on the look-out and more elements were discovered and as the Christian complains, the chart was filled in.

Do we say today computers must have punch cards, black and white screens, and operate on DOS 4.0?

Do we say automobiles have to be started by turning a crank, have chain drives, and manual transmissions.

Are airplanes made of canvas and baling wire?

Knowledge comes as we fill in the holes.

The problem begins when Fundamentalists claim "science doesn't have all the answers." Scientists are wise enough to nod and agree. In this, maybe the Fundamentalists ought to look at themselves in see if they can apply that principle.

You think they might? Let's see.