Velikovsky is sought and rejected
Continued from page 3 what was going on, what the prophets and the stories of the books spoke, it all explains catastrophes of some unusual magnitude, like mountains moving, the sea erupting, a new sky. It is not just the Old Testament, but almost all of the surviving historical and legendary material from all ancient civilizations.
You should read this for what it is written, but there is an inability to read it. How many people have read the Old Testament? There is an inability to see that it has spoken about catastrophes. In the case of the prophets like Isaiah, Amos, Joel, Hosea, and Habakkuk, they speak about catastrophes of their own time in such plain language you could not make it plainer. But stones and fire are misread for something else. I call this collective scotoma.
Collective amnesia would be the same phenomenon in that respect that from ancient times the memories of those catastrophes are right in the literature. But already in the first century A.D. it begins to go into oblivion. There is a difference between Cicerro and Lucretius. Lucretius knows about these catastrophes; in Cicero, the clash to believe occupies his mind.
We are victims of amendsia. It is this part on which I usually conclude my speech on whatever subject I have because this is a message that I believe is, for me, an obligation, especially in the view of the irrational behavior of man himself and races and nations involving themselves in wars.
We are now in the possession of thermonuclear weapons, and the victims of amnesia playing with thermonuclear weapons is an awful spectre because we act
irrationally and do not know why.
KANSAN: would you explain what happened at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia last February, the latest incident in the "Velikovsky Affair"?
VELIKOVSKY: The Rittenhouse Astronomical Society of Philadelphia wished to hear me, but their regular place of meeting is the Franklin Institute. The Franklin Institute abhors of my speaking there, and later when the press started to present views of protests—editorials, letters, articles—theen the Institute offered that I should debate in their auditorium.
The Rittenhouse Astronomical Society declined this kind of censorship and wished to hear me. I was heard at another auditorium, answered questions sensibly, and offered to the American Philosophical Society, also in Philadelphia, to debate or let them investigate my work.
KANSAN: Have you encountered any resistance to expression of your theories on your current tour which includes St. Olaf's College, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Chicago as well as the University of Kansas?
VELIKOVSKY: I was asked to speak at the University of Wisconsin by several departments with several more showing interest, and my speech to the public met no resistance. But the next night, before the geology club, I was confronted by a professor and several of his students in the question-and-answer period. They were obviously prepared and tried to find a hole in my theory. They couldn't and when they could not answer the questions I put back to them, they became very virulent.
In Chicago I was invited to be interviewed on a radio program. The science adviser to the station who interviewed me attacked my theory as "non-scientific." I asked him if he had read any of my books and he said no. I remarked that a person who was before 70,000 people in 40 states should not express an opinion without reading the books. It's like the book reviewer who says.
Court says Ala. must integrate
WASHINGTON —(UPI)— The Supreme Court refused today to block temporarily a March 22 court order requiring Alabama officials to eliminate racial segregation in public schools.
Gov. Lurleen B. Wallace and other state officials said desegregation of public schools in the state was already proceeding in an orderly manner.
Their request for a delay pending appeal was filed with Justice Hugo L. Black, a fellow Alabaman but he referred it to the court itself for action.
The three-judge panel set forth a model desegregation plan and directed the state superintendent of education to inform 99 local school systems that they must meet its standards. An Alabama tuition grant law was found unconstitutional.
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yourself. Here, practically for the first time, an astronomer offers a quantitative dispute of my work that was published, and I am given the chance to answer.
VI 2-8013
I experienced at the University of Chicago something that I had never before experienced in all my travels. Students always surround me after a lecture and ask me questions, but there a young couple stood outside with placards urging people not to buy tickets to listen to me. Incidentally, that is the only occasion people have ever had to pay to hear me speak.
842 Massachusetts
It also contains a rebuttal by (KU professor of chemistry Albert) Burgstahler. He has given the traditional arguments to my theory and has given me a chance to answer. Now his colleagues will be compelled to give arguments, not statements. This is certainly very different from the years I was ostracized.
Not everything is bad. The latest edition of the Yale Scientific Magazine is dedicated to my work. Actually, it has my article "Venus—A Youthful Planet." This article was written in 1963. It has a rebuttal by an astronomer, my rejoinder, and you can judge by
Daily Kansan
Monday, May 22, 1967
7
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