Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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54 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Catastrophe Happens!, April 8, 1999
This book is worth the effort. Whether a scholar, or a person with a healthy curiosity, this book should stimulate your brain cells. The book does not roll along like a Tom Clancy novel, but it does describe more chaos and destruction than all his novels combined. We're talking "a disaster of Biblical proportions, Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff, fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, rivers and seas boiling, 40 years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, . . . dogs & cats living together, mass hysteria" ("Ghostbusters I" but right on target).Reading this book gives the open minded reader the opportunity to view the history of the Earth in a completely new way, and some of our favorite mysteries of the past may be decoded in conjunction with Velikovsky's "theories". The scientific discoveries of the 49 years since the book was first published have been very kind to Dr. Velikovsky, but not so kind to scientific dogma of the same period). Velikovsky dares to read ancient works literally, and to look for proof of their accuracy, even when they appear flawed. If a document states that the sun rose in the west, Velikovsky is willing to search for proof that it did, instead of presuming the text is flawed. Velikovsky's ideas help to unravel mysteries which cannot be decoded until we are willing to challenge the scientific dogma which presumes that ancient documents are incorrect whenever they disagree with our perceptions of what they ought to say. Will Stonehenge be forever a mystery, because theories that it was built as an astrological computer are dashed by the fact that present planetary orbits do not fit its alignment? Or can we suppose that prehistoric man dragged those stones around, and reset them several times, because keeping up with the wanderings of comets/planets was important to their survival. Is it possible that today Stonehenge does not align because the orbits of stars and planets, relative to the Earth's, have changed? If the errosion on the Sphinx is a result of water, not wind and sand, could this relate to a drastic shift in the Earth's axis since it was built? Could such a shift have caused the sudden decline of Egyptian culture? And have we ever wondered what those Mammoths ate out there on the Siberian tundra? Did they live on lichen and snowcones, or did they eat a few tons of subtropical plants each day (as supported by the stomach contents found in those flash frozen Mammoths found in Siberia in the sixties). And HOW did they get flash frozen so quickly that the meat never spoiled? I first read this book in the seventies, while in college. A theologian at the time suggested I should not read the book, as he felt Velikovsky was trying to show that God did not cause the events recorded in the Bible which so often helped the Jews. I am sure Dr. Velikovsky would not try to prove a negative hypothesis, and I found no evidence of same in the book. It is interesting that all other cultures perceived the comets to be gods, while the Jews saw the comets as messengers of the one God. It is curious that these cataclysms only seemed to help the Jews. The book supports the historical accuracy of the Bible, as well as other religious writings and "mythologies". This book in worth the effort, as it has a lot to contribute to our own perceptions of nature, history, and religion.
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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No Trial of the Star Chamber, August 29, 2005
The abuse that has been heaped on Velikovsky at least since 1950 can be seen in remnant form today in the occasional backhand and unscholarly disrespect, usually no more than a sentence or paragraph. Even scientists with good ethics have done this, perhaps proceeding from their mistaken faith in uniformity and gradualism. Fringe writers tend to be even more vicious, and even less informed about the content of Velikovsky's writings and character, relying on pseudoscientific drivel by certain celebrities best left nameless.
"Worlds In Collision" was published first of Velikovsky's books -- essays, and a couple of booklets preceded it -- yet it was the last product of a line of research which began with his study of Freud's "Moses and Monotheism". Had the publication been delayed, it is possible that "Ages In Chaos" would have been better received, and the catastrophic background referred to without being revealed until years had passed. It is perhaps the greatest scholarly "what if" of the 20th century.
Accordingly, I would recommend reading "Ages In Chaos" and the related volumes, as well as "Earth In Upheaval" and "Stargazers and Gravediggers" before reading "Worlds In Collision". Avoid synopses, and don't believe most of what you've read about the book or the author. The reason for the reading of the revised chronology first is to understand the framework better. Velikovsky himself made the mistake of accepting the supposed massive eruption of Thera as the source of the Atlantis legend, as well as its place in the conventional chronology (Edwin M. Schorr pointed this out in a letter to KRONOS years ago).
If you enjoyed Sitchin, Bauval, and certain other writers, you will not only enjoy "Worlds In Collision", you'll probably rid yourself of those others' works.
See also Velikovsky's other works (new and used), Ryan and Pitman's "Noah's Flood", Mary Settegast's "Plato Prehistorian", and Robert Schoch's "Voices of the Rocks".
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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Revolutionary Book in Every Sense of the Word, February 17, 2006
This is among the league of revolutionary books that change the world and add to human knowledge in the true sense. I first read it aged 11 in 1979, in condensed form in the Book Section of the "Reader's Digest" magazine, and it changed and shaped my whole outlook on life. Here I must point out that it isn't an inspirational literary or poetic work on an abstract or moral issue; it is a book on an ingenious theory that predicates several ancient historical and legendary events in Human history upon various changes in the solar system. In other words, it seeks a rational basis for issues regarded as ephemeral and mythical at best. That is what is so remarkable to me about it. Velikovsky postulates that the formation of the planet Venus was an extremely recent event in the history of our Solar System - taking place perhaps only 4000 years ago (the Earth by comparison, was formed 4.5 billion years ago, and the "Big Bang" is said to have taken place about 11 billion years ago). Taking place as it did within the era of Man's recorded history, it should have left many awesome and profound effects upon our Earth, the second closest planet to it, which the ancients would have chronicled and passed down in legend and religious lore. And indeed there are. According to Velikovsky, Venus was "torn out" of Jupiter by the influence of a passing star. It then became a huge molten "comet" which passed by Mars and the Earth, to settle in its present orbit around the sun. Although all this is still conjecture at best, it is revolutionary and ingenious. Velikovsky goes on to offer it as an explaination for several seminal events that took place in Moses' time, when he was leading the Israelites out of Egypt (he himself was a Jew). For instance, the parting of the Red Sea into "walls" of water to allow them to flee from the Pharoah's armies is attributed to Venus' gravitational effects, the waters of the Nile turning bloody in another legend of the time is explained by the entry of an iron compound from Venus' "cometary tail" into our atmosphere when it crossed it, and the dropping of Manna was because of the synthesis of organic compounds present in that tail which when it encountered our atmosphere, caused them to drop out of the sky. Different legends of the time state that the Sun would rise in the West or remain suspended in the sky for long periods, suggesting that Venus' passage had disturbed the Earth's axial rotation... He gives this and other evidence along with detailed ingenious explainations. He also predicted several other phenomena regarding Venus' physical and chemical qualities, which he deduced would be valid if his theory was correct. Later, all these were proved as true. But this was not accepted in the early 1950s when this work was first published. Velikovsky was hounded most mercilessly by the Western scientific establishment for two decades, and regarded as an eccentric and crackpot in the extreme despite his credentials, and the fact that Albert Einstein was his backer. It was only later when several of his predictions were substantiated by later scientific advancements that he started gaining the respect he deserved. He died a few years after his rehabilitation.
As I said above, the book has a deeply personal connotation for me. I shall share this with you. I live in a "traditional" tribal Islamic society, characterised by repression and compulsion as far as beliefs and expression are concerned. Here, if by the age of seven a kid doesn't start parrotising and doing the numerous and laborious prescribed Islamic rituals, then according to the doctrine his guardians are duty bound to see to it that he starts - even if this means using physical punishments, coercion or threats.... and a lot of kids are terrorised that God will "cause the roof to fall in on them" or they will be visited at night by monsters that will gobble them up if they don't learn their so-called prayers.... It was similar treatment by my late father and teachers that made me hate Islam as a kid. And my own intelligence told me that it was nothing but a bunch of silly, backward legends for which I was being tortured. You can imagine then the secret joy, consolation and the resulting inner strength I felt when I came across "Worlds in Collision" that "X-rayed" and explained these silly legends and revealed rationally the true nature of this frightening religious horror to me. Of course, I didn't argue about this publicly with my "elders" then, because I would have been beaten up for "blasphemy"....
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