Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Venus?



I read Velikovsky's "Ages in Chaos" and "Worlds in Collision" when I was in
4th or 5th grade (awhile back now), so my memory is not to be completely
trusted. But my memory is that he proposed that Venus was originally a comet
(or possibly of extrasolar origin), but passing Jupiter threw it into a
different orbit, eventually settling down at its present near-circular orbit.
Before completely settling down it made a couple of near passes close to the
earth, one of which was responsible for the parting of the Red Sea (and
accompanying "plagues" in Egypt), another for Joshua's long day, etc.

His approach was to take the Biblical story as very close to literally true,
but try to find an astronomical cause for the miracles reported in the Bible.
Similarly he takes every earthquake or disaster mentioned in ancient texts or
myths as evidence for another passage of Venus. Oh, I think it was supposed
to be an encounter between Venus and Mars that put Venus in a circular orbit
and threw Mars out beyond Earth's orbit. And the Iliad actually describes
this "battle"!

Note: Has anyone ever crunched numbers relating to the likelihood of a comet
in a highly eccentric orbit interacting with another body in a near-circular
orbit and ending up in an orbit as close to circular as Venus' is? I expect
the probability is "astronomically small". ;-)

Ken Caviness
Physics @ Southern

"Kilmer, Skip" wrote:

As I recall (My dad was a strong believer of Velikovsky's theories) T=
he proposal was that some mysterious "electromagnetic" forces were th=
e cause of the effects on Earth.
skip

-----Original Message-----
=46rom: Michael Burns-Kaurin [mailto:mburns-k@SPELMAN.EDU]
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 09:01
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: Venus?

I think Velikovsky's idea was that Venus was somehow ejected from Jup=
iter,
bounced around the solar system for a while, then settled into its pr=
esent
orbit. Presumably at some point Venus approached Earth and exerted i=
ts
mysterious torque, then left. I suppose conservation of angular mome=
ntum
would let Earth start rotating again.

If I recall correctly, he also ties this into the rain of manna and s=
everal
other biblical stories.

Michael Burns-Kaurin
Spelman College