(-11-) Carl Sagan vs. Immanuel Velikovsky
Cosmos fans, whether you're interested in the old PBS series or the study
of our place in the universe, might be interested in picking up a copy of
_Carl Sagan and Immanuel Velikovsky_, an expose of Sagan's critique of
Velikovsky's _Worlds in Collision_ book. This is a very controversial
issue, and the book provides some interesting insights into the scientific
community.
The book, written by Charles Ginenthal, "systematically examines each of
Sagan's scathing critiques in detail and dismisses them with a vast body
of evidence mainly gathered from the mainstream scientific literature,
including other work by Sagan himself," according to Washington Post
reviewer Martin Sieff.
Ted Holden <medved@access.digex.net> wrote:
> Velikovsky was a friend of Albert Einsteins from the Prussian
> Scientific Academy, a student of Freud's, and an old-school academic
> who was researching a book dealing with one of Freud's favorite topics,
> i.e. a possible link between Oedipus and the Pharoah Akhnaton, when he
> discovered the same thing which Ignatius Donnelly had discovered almost
> 100 years earlier, i.e. that in sharp distinction from the scientific
> view that all change in biological and geological forms occurs slowly
> and over huge expanses of time, there appeared to be massive and valid
> evidence in ancient literature substantiating the ancient belief that
> the Earth had recently undergone a number of massive upheavals related
> to a final settling of the solar system intself into a stable
> configuration. He published a book called Worlds in Collision in 1950
> which became a runaway international bestseller under a MacMillan label
> for about seven weeks, at which point MacMillan was threatened with a
> continental boycott on all of its textbooks if they did not drop Worlds
> in Collision, and dropped it.
Sagan orchestrated much of the opposition agains Velikovsky's work.
Ginenthal's book is due out in March.
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- T o d d E. V a n H o o s e a r -
``'''vanhoose@lalaland.cl.msu.edu - vanhoose@msu.edu - vanhoose@lalaland.cl.msu.edu
(._.) Michigan State University - East Lansing, MI USA
(_) Computer Laboratory - Department of Communication
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"Give me ambiguity or give me something else."
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