Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from ...

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Worlds in Derision:
Velikovsky vs. Modern Science
I n
1950, a remarkable book entitled Worlds in Collision was
published. It was the culmination of a decade’s work by a man
who had a startling thought: what if the various disasters recorded
in ancient texts were real, actual events?
The ancients experienced so many catastrophes that it almost
sounds like something from a bad science fiction movie. Fire rained
down from the sky, the Sun stood still during the day, floods, famines,
vermin infestations—it seems like things were a bit more exciting
back then. Of course, most people assume that these events
were either exaggerated or were simply myths spawned from storytelling
and a very human need to explain things that are beyond
our understanding. But suppose we take these ancient writers at
their word, and assume that these events really did happen. Can
there be a simple, common cause? Could it have an astronomical
basis?
Psychoanalyst Immanuel Velikovsky decided to tackle this issue.
His answers to these seemingly simple questions would have massive
repercussions throughout the scientific community, although
perhaps not in the way he would have thought. By the time he finished
Worlds in Collision and its sequel, Earth in Upheaval, he
honestly felt that he had uncovered evidence that all previous scientific
laws were wrong, and that we needed to seriously rethink
the way the universe worked.
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