Carl Sagan & Immanuel Velikovsky (c) 1995 Charles Ginenthal ISBN: 1-56184-075-0 Cover art by S. Jason Black Special thanks to Ralph Dravin for his editing To Joan 1995 New Falcon Publications Tempe, Arizona U.S.A.

Carl Sagan & Immanuel Velikovsky

Charles Ginenthal

Table of Contents Preface Part I Introduction An Improbable Tale An interdisciplinary scholar * Tales of upheaval * The cometary 'newcomer' * A case of professional hysteria * Looking for Velikovsky's comet * What is science? * Religion, astrology, superstition * How science operates * Peer review * The origin of craters The Historical Evidence Experts * Diffusion or common observation * Teo -- place or god * The shapes of cometary fields * Reading carefully * Fractions -- calendars * Synchronism * The world ages * Aphrodite, Athena -- planet Venus * Pallas -- Typhon * Meteorite thunder * Lightning and magnets * Hail of barad * Sagan's principle * The crescent shape of Venus * The Bible * Earth in Upheaval * Comets and swastikas * Frogs, flies, vermin Velikovsky's theory Originality and predictions * Sagan and gravity Part II the Scientific Evidence Sagan's first problem: The ejection of Venus by Jupiter Ancient observations * The birth of Venus * Jupiter catches comets * The Oort cloud * Explosion * Energy * Big comets * Escape velocity * How long ago? * Other astronomers and comets * It has never been observed Sagan's second problem: Repeated collisions among the Earth, Venus and Mars 30 thousand, 10 million, 30 million * Gravity and collisions * Sagan's mathematics * Gravitational evidence * Statistical inevitability Sagan's third problem: The Earth's rotation Boiling oceans * Solar activity and rotation * Solar magnetism * Geomagnetism * Cometary magnetism * Lineaments Sagan's fourth problem: Terrestrial Geology And Lunar Craters Earth in upheaval * The end of the ice age * Climate evidence * Volcanoes * Geomagnetic reversals * Mountain building * Mammoth bones C14 * When was the moon last molten? * Dust * Thermoluminescence tests * Dust again * Craters on earth * Global flooding * Gaunal extinctions * C14 dating the extinctions * Art and drawings of extinct animals * Uniformitarian causes * Alaska and Canada * Siberia * Ipiutak * The bronze age in Siberia * Lakes of the Great Basin * La Brea tar pit * Florida * Agate spring quarry, Nebraska * Elephants * South America * Arctic muck * Whales * Archaeology * The Columbia plateau * Tidal destruction of the moon * Sagan's bitter pill Sagan's fifth problem: Chemistry & biology of the terrestrial planets The origin of atmospheric oxygen * Hydrocarbons -- carbohydrates * Jupiter's hydrocarbons * Cometary hydrocarbons * Hydrocarbons into carbohydrates * Manna from heaven * Sky oil * The origin of petroleum * Mars' polar caps * Life in space-anyone's guess * Fine tuning the evidence * Erosion on Mars * Martian asymmetry and mascons * Martian boulders * A Martian flood * Tarsis * How to deal with Martian erosion tidal forces on small bodies * Philosophy as evidence Sagan's sixth problem: Manna A taste of cyanide * Do comets have formaldehyde? * A very big calculation * Double rations -- double talk Sagan's seventh problem: The clouds of venus Clouds of water vapor * Sagan and water vapor clouds * Velikovsky's hydrocarbon clouds? * Oxygen on venus * Sulfuric acid clouds * Analysis by L.D. Kaplan * Venus' sulfuric acid age * Venus' carbon dioxide age * Mars' carbon dioxide * Mars' nitrogen-15 * Venus' argon-36 and argon-40 age * Venus' oxygen age * The earth's helium Sagan's eighth problem: The temperature of venus The greenhouse effect * Venus' water age * Does sunlight reach Venus' surface? * A real greenhouse * The second law of thermodynamics * Hot air rises * V.A. Firsoff's objections * The runaway mechanism * Venus' neon and argon age * Ashen light * Thermal balance * Thermal balance denied * Lies, damned lies and Sagan's chart * A thermodynamic analysis * Sagan versus Sagan * Sagan and his Martian greenhouse effect * What other scientists say Sagan's ninth problem: The craters of venus Tectonic features of Venus * Venus' many ancient impact craters * Volcanism on Venus * Weathering of Venus' rocks * Venus' hydrofluoric-hydrochloric age * What holds up Venus' high mountains? * Venus' rotation * Venus lacks a magnetic field * No erosion of rock on Venus * The Venusian regolith * Venus' volcanism like Io's * The super rotating atmosphere * Catastrophism to the rescue Sagan's tenth problem: The circularization of the orbit of Venus Non-gravitational forces in the solar system * Pendulum experiments * The counter force to gravity * Newtonian mechanics * Jupiter's satellites * Changes in the Solar System * Comets and the rocket effect * Electromagnetism * Halley's cometary orbit * Comets with highly circular orbits * More changes in the Solar System * Ancient evidence of Venus' orbit * Dogma as evidence * Gravity and craters Sagan's other problems Deimos and Phobos * Evidence on Mars * More of Deimos and Phobos * Ancient astronomy * Mars' atmosphere * Santorini -- Atlantis Sagan's appendices Appendix I * Appendix II * Appendix III * Appendix IV Conclusion Velikovsky and Einstein * Sagan's commitment * Halton Arp * This is science today * Atoms and solar systems * Hannes Alfven * The nub of the issue * Scientific ethics

Preface

Dr. Carl Sagan, a professor of astronomy from Cornell University, a well known public personality and writer of popular books of science, in 1974 at a symposium of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) delivered a paper, "An Analysis of Worlds in Collision ". This paper was later edited and presented in a book, Scientists Confront Velikovsky, published by Cornell University Press. The paper was further edited and presented in Sagan's book Broca's Brain, under the title "Venus and Dr. Velikovsky". Sagan's paper is a critique of Immanuel Velikovsky's book Worlds in Collision.

Having read Velikovsky, I also read Sagan's paper; I thereafter discovered that a group of scientists and scholars had written critiques of Sagan's analysis. After reading these criticisms I began a search of the literature and over a period of time I became convinced that Sagan's critique lacked substance. Most surprising was the number of statements made by Sagan that proved to be clearly untrue. Further reading reinforced this discovery of the glaringly unscientific and unscholarly quality of Sagan's paper. What was much worse, was that it was difficult to imagine that even Sagan was unaware of the misrepresentation of evidence presented as scholarly criticism by him and offered to the public.

Thereafter, I encountered a colleague who, learning that I was interested in the thesis of Dr. Velikovsky, informed me that in Broca's Brain was an essay by Professor Sagan that demolished Velikovsky and his thesis. When he informed me that he had not read any of Velikovsky's books nor any criticisms of Sagan's article I asked, "How can you make a proper judgment if you haven't read both sides of the issue." To my astonishment he replied, "I don't have to read both sides to know which side is right!" His closed-minded attitude made discussion futile and I let the remark pass. Several days later I received a letter in which he presented citations from Sagan's paper and posed, "What possible arguments could be raised on Velikovsky's behalf?"

In response I composed a long letter which dealt with merely one of Sagan's criticisms. This posted I awaited his response, none came. A few weeks later at a monthly conference, we ran into each other. In a very friendly manner he approached me, smiling broadly, he shook my hand. "What did you think of my reply to your letter?" I asked. He admired the scholarship of my reply to Sagan and admitted frankly, "There are two sides to this Velikovsky business." This I followed up by asking if there were any other aspects of Sagan's criticism which he wished to clarify. He shook his head 'no' and I dropped the matter. However, I noted that he seemed shocked by the evidence of the rebuttal presented.

It was at that moment that the realization struck that Carl Sagan's criticisms had been uncritically read by a wide audience. This was soon discovered to be the case among friends and relatives. Seemingly, they had all read Sagan's side, but not Velikovsky's. With little or no scientific background with which to judge, they had accepted Sagan's word on all matters. It was then that I conceived the idea for this book. It is hoped that reading the other side will permit laymen to clarify the issues.

I must admit that doing the research for this book over about an eight-year period has brought to my attention much more than I had imagined regarding Sagan's critique. It has been a deeply saddening experience to discover again and again the crassness of Sagan's work on Velikovsky. It has also been a deeply shocking experience to learn the political nature of the way science operates. Even if Velikovsky's theories are completely wrong, no one deserves to be maligned as he has been. The deceit exposed in the following pages is an outrage to decency.

Carl Sagan & Immanuel Velikovsky