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By Root 1141 0

’s work described above, there is not one case where his ideas are simultaneously original and consistent with simple physical theory and observation. Moreover, many of the objections—especially Problems I, II, III and X—are objections of high weight, based on the motion and conservation laws of physics. In science, an acceptable argument must have a clearly set forth chain of evidence. If a single link in the chain is broken, the argument fails. In the case of Worlds in Collision, we have the opposite case: virtually every link in the chain is broken. To rescue the hypothesis requires special pleading, the vague invention of new physics, and selective inattention to a plethora of conflicting evidence. Accordingly, Velikovsky’s basic thesis seems to me clearly untenable on physical grounds.

Moreover, there is a dangerous potential problem with the mythological material. The supposed events are reconstructed from legends and folktales. But these global catastrophes are not present in the historical records or folklore of many cultures. Such strange omissions are accounted for, when they are noted at all, by “collective amnesia.” Velikovsky wants it both ways. Where concordances exist, he is prepared to draw the most sweeping conclusions from them. Where concordances do not exist, the difficulty is dismissed by invoking “collective amnesia.” With so lax a standard of evidence, anything can be “proved.”

I should also point out that a much more plausible explanation exists for most of the events in Exodus that Velikovsky accepts, an explanation that is much more in accord with physics. The Exodus is dated in I Kings as occurring 480 years before the initiation of the construction of the Temple of Solomon. With other supporting calculations, the date for the Biblical Exodus is then computed to be about 1447 B.C. (Covey, 1975). Other Biblical scholars disagree, but this date is consistent with Velikovsky’s chronology, and is astonishingly close to the dates obtained by a variety of scientific methods for the final and colossal volcanic explosion of the island of Thera (or Santorin) which may have destroyed the Minoan civilization in Crete and had profound consequences for Egypt, less than three hundred miles to the south. The best available radiocarbon date for the event, obtained from a tree buried in volcanic ash on Thera, is 1456 B.C. with an error in the method of at least plus or minus forty-three years. The amount of volcanic dust produced is more than adequate to account for three days of darkness in daytime, and accompanying events can explain earthquakes, famine, vermin and a range of familiar Velikovskian catastrophes. It also may have produced an immense Mediterranean tsunami, or tidal wave, which Angelos Galanopoulos (1964)—who is responsible for much of the recent geological and archaeological interest in Thera—believes can account for the parting of the Red Sea as well.* In a certain sense, the Galanopoulos explanation of the events in Exodus is even more provocative than the Velikovsky explanation, because Galanopoulos has presented moderately convincing evidence that Thera corresponds in almost all essential details to the legendary civilization of Atlantis. If he is right, it is the destruction of Atlantis rather than the apparition of a comet that permitted the Israelites to leave Egypt.

There are many strange inconsistencies in Worlds in Collision, but on the next-to-last page of the book, a breathtaking departure from the fundamental thesis is casually introduced. We read of a hoary and erroneous analogy between the structures of solar systems and of atoms. Suddenly we are presented with the hypothesis that the supposed errant motions of the planets, rather than being caused by collisions, are instead the result of changes in the quantum energy levels of planets attendant to the absorption of a photon—or perhaps several. Solar systems are held together by gravitational forces; atoms by electrical forces. While both forces depend on the inverse square of distance, they have totally different characters and