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Re: mars and venus

On Thu, 23 Sep 1999, Chuck Britton wrote:

WARNING - NEVER mention the name 'Velikovsky' in the context of
'serious' astronomy or BillB will find ANOTHER area of 'suppressed'
science to espouse! ;-) (go for it Bill!)

LOL!!!

Actually, Velikovsky's stuff to me looks like a load of BS. He doesn't
stay honest and repeatedly lable it as speculation. In later years the
debunkers showed that some of his evidence was fictional, added to sell
books rather than pursue truth and accuracy.

On the other hand, the response of Academia to the books was shameful. To
stop their publication, several universities threatened to withdraw their
textbook orders from the publisher. THe publisher quickly dropped
Velikovsky, and somebody else picked him up. I remember one quote from
that controversy went something like "Worlds in Collision is the best
canidate for burning that I've seen in a long time." Shouldn't their
response be "I fiercely disagree with everything you say, but I will
defend to the death your right to say it?"

People never learn. You don't censor books, ever, even if they are Warping
Young Student Minds (or whatever excuse they had for bringing up to topic
of bookburning.) Just the *desire* to burn a book is something that
should draw condemnation, not pride.

So the question is, when is "suppression" appropriate (if ever?) Is it
appropriate to *silence* the voice of a crackpot, rather than just
defeating him in a debate on a level playing field? (I recall that
skeptics refused to debate Velikovsky on the grounds that this would waste
time and also legitimize his work. If a fair fight is impossible, then I
suppose that censorship is the only option if he is to be defeated.)


((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com http://www.amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits science projects, tesla, weird science
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