Planetary Chauvinism vs the High Frontier

From: "Monart Pon"
To:
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 7:17 PM
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] Fwd: Re: [Starship_Forum] Planetary Chauvinism
vsthe High Frontier

[snikt]
> Einstein, who was more than just a "respected astronomer", was a friend
and colleague of Velikovsky, and believed that Velikovsky's theories were
worthy of serious study. Your bringing in the authority of "respected
astronomers" makes me wonder: Have you read any of Velikovsky's books
first-hand or studied the history of the irresponsible and unscientific
manner in which the "respected astronomers", including Sagan, had treated
Velikovsky's heavily documented theories and validated predictions? And what
relevance does your not believing that "aliens built the pyramids" (neither
do I) have here, except as an example of your attempt to use the fallacy of
intimidation as an argument.

Well, the "argument of the authority" has no value in science, and so if
Einstein supported Velikovsky that's irrelevant. (By the way, Einstein was
also human and he proved to be wrong in more than one occasion, like when he
introduced the Cosmological Constant just to guarantee a stable universe. So
we should take any claim from him as we do with any other scientist: with
skepticism.) I know just the basics of Velikovsky's theories - as far as I
know, he proposed that Venus was (in some obscure way) spitted by Jupiter in
historical times, crossed the path to the inner Solar System and, after many
catastrophic events involving other planets, settled (in some obscure way)
in its present orbit. I can't see how this theory fits with *any* of the
facts know about Jupiter, Venus, orbital mechanics and planetary
formation/internal dynamics. To make this theory acceptable, one would have
to make up a lot of additional hypotheses (e.g., "there is an unknown
process that allow gas giants to spit rocky orbs into space"), and Occam's
Razor simply rule them out of scientific consideration. So, I sincerely
think that Velikovsky was yet another wacko and I don't believe his theories
either. If you think that there is evidence enough to give credit to his
theory, I would like to hear your point. (No, I will not read Velikovsky's
original work unless someone presents some compelling point to me.)

> Monart
> http://www.starshipaurora.com/
[snikt]

Lucio