A Scientist Looks at Velikovsky’s “Worlds in Collision” - The BAS Library
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A Scientist Looks at Velikovsky’s “Worlds in Collision”

Did a near-collision of a comet with earth cause manna to fall in the Sinai and the sun to stand still over Gibeon?

By Carl Sagan

In the spring of 1940 Immanuel Velikovsky’s study of the Biblical accounts of the Exodus led him to conclude that a great physical catastrophe had befallen the earth at the time of Moses. He soon located references to what he believed to be the same event in historical texts, epics, myths, and folklore of a number of ancient peoples. Since conventional scientific theory made no allowance for cataclysms in historical times, Velikovsky began revising astronomy and geology as well as ancient history. The results of his labors were Worlds in Collision (1950) dealing primarily with his theories of […]

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Footnotes

1.

The page numbers refer to the canonical English-language edition of Worlds in Collision (Velikovsky, 1950).

2.

A supernova is a titanic stellar explosion which occurs in the late evolution of stars more massive than the Sun.

3.

Actually, Exodus states that manna fell each day except on the Sabbath. A double ration, uninfected by worms, fell instead on Friday. This seems awkward for Velikovsky’s hypothesis. How could the comet know? Indeed, this raises a general problem about Velikovsky’s historical method. Some quotations from his religious and historical sources are to be taken literally; others are to be dismissed as “local embellishments.” But what is the standard by which this decision is made? Surely such a standard must involve a criterion independent of our predispositions toward Velikovsky’s contentions.

Endnotes

1.

Lecar, M., and Franklin, F., “On the Original Distribution of the Asteroids.” Icarus, 20:422–436 (1973).

2.

Young, L. D. G., and Young, A. T., Comments on “The Composition of the Venus Cloud Tops in Light of Recent Spectroscopic Data.” Ap.J., 179:L39 (1973).

Sill, G., “Sulfuric Acid in the Venus Clouds.” Communications Lunar Planet Lab., University of Arizona, 9:191–198 (1972).

Young, A. T., “Are the Clouds of Venus Sulfuric Acid?” Icarus, 18:564–582 (1973).

Pollack, J. B., Erickson, E., Witteborn, F., Chackerian, C., Summers, A., Augason, G., and Caroff, L., “Aircraft Observation of Venus’ Near-infrared Reflection Spectrum: Implications for Cloud Compositions,” Icarus, 23:8–6 (1974).