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From: kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: The realm of physics, and the late Immanuel Velikovsky
Message-ID: <405@hounx.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Nov-85 10:10:44 EST
Article-I.D.: hounx.405
Posted: Mon Nov 18 10:10:44 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Nov-85 04:19:53 EST
References: <457@imsvax.UUCP>, <739@ecsvax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
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Velikovsky presents the scientific community with a challenging
paradox.  On the one hand, he proposed bold theories which shook the
foundations of conventional theory.  For this alone, he cannot be
condemned.  After all, Copernicus, Galileo, and Einstein did the same.
Velikovsky correctly predicted that his theories would be ridiculed.
For this he had ample precedent (e.g. Galileo).  I think Velikovsky's
main error was not in his scientific theorizing--after all, much of
the labor of science is to conceive of experiments to confirm or refute
hypotheses about the nature of things.  I think Velikovsky's main error
was his arrogant manner of presenting his theories as revelations to
a naive and gullible public.  In this regard, I feel Velikovsky did a
grave disservice to Science by undermining the process of testing
proposed theories against evidence and logic.  But the other side of the
coin is that he forced the scientific community to clarify the process
by which successful theories are filtered out from the many ideas
that are put forth to explain how the universe came to be in the
state that we find it in our present epoch.  Here I commend that much-
maligned populist-scientist Carl Sagan who took the time and effort
to explain in layman's terms how science is done, and how science deals
with pseudo-science theories such as those of Velikovsky and the Creationists.
(See e.g. Chapter 7 of Sagan's _Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance
of Science_.)
--Barry Kort