Posted by D J Lancaster on March 27, 1999 at 15:54:37:
In Reply to: Worlds in Confusion posted by Gunnar on March 26, 1999 at 22:17:36:
"I disagree with him about it being a great book, however. It is one of the silliest psuedo-scientific books I know of."
Velikovsky put credence in the various historical records and mythical depictions of cultures from around the world of a huge comet crossing the sky with attendant calamities and came up with the rather half baked idea that the 'comet' was in fact Venus having a near miss of the Earth. Okay, so his comet theory was unplausible. That doesn't mean that those historical writings were
were not describing a cataclysmic impact event.
In fact, Duncan Steel, author of Roge Asteroids and Doomsday Comets pointed out in a scientific publication "that Austrailian Aboringines and New Zealand Maoris have oral traditions of strange rocks falling from the sky, causing awful fires and many deaths, and this scenario is common to the the myths of other peoples."
Now I wonder where he got that information, Velikovsky quotes the Maoris, in his book World's in Collision, as saying "The mighty winds, the fierce squalls, the clouds, dense, dark fiery, wildly drifting,wildly bursting,"rushed on creation,...and swept away giant forest and lashed the waters into billows whose crests rose high like mountains. The earth groaned terribly, and the ocean fled. Velikovskly wrote that in 1956 and the credible modern day Steel wrote it in 1995. To think Velikovsky has not had an impact on the scientific reinterpretation of past events, is a little silly, to say the least. His conjecture about the comet/earth/venus scenario may have been frought with error, but the gathering of other kinds of evidence that would support a comet impact in general, has much to do with Velikovsky's research on legend, myth, and other historical writings.
Even our modern friend, Steel says "There is ample evidence not only from historical records of various forms, but also from the analysis of data from this century (such as Whipple's modeling of the Taurid meteors), that around 5,000 years ago the sky did not appear as quiescent as it does now, and that since that time there have been other disruptions of the heavens, producing conflagerations here below.
There are always those guys who are first to try to caputure a new model of the universe that end up being ridiculed the most; remember Freud, the first to introduce his ideas about a sub-conscious, became the man most ridiculed and sneered in his profession?
I'm not going to believe for a minute that lots of scientists haven't secretly tasted the sweet data gathering that Velikovsky left behind. Steel is the first guy I've read, that actually had the guts to bring up Velikovsky's name. And low and behold Velikovsky's references to the Maoris and aborigines are bought forward in Steels scientific papers.
Now does anyone think for a moment that scores of scientist everywhere have not gleaned something significant from Velikovsky?
Its too bad his name is such a taboo, that they can't even admit to a run in with his work.
It isn't his absurd theory about the comet that make people continue to pick up a copy of his out of print book 'World's in Collision', it is the enormous gathering of information he has put together from records from around the world that makes for a stimulating read. I have a copy of my own, which I'd never in a hundred years give away.
dj