ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) (09/15/85)
To Michael:
The evidence from the realm of mythology is that only one side of this
planet was inhabited during the age of Kronos. Catch David Talbott's book,
"The Saturn Myth", Doubleday 1980 for details. However, there were a number
of devastating catastrophies after the age of Kronos, so that the continents and their present positions are no indication of what the surface of the earth
looked like during that age. Velikovsky's books "Worlds in Collision"
and "Earth in Upheavel" give a better account of these latter day catastrophies
than anything I could say in a few lines. The whole notion of falling "off the
edge of the earth" if you were to sail too far, familiar up to Columbus' time,
was a racial memory from the age of Kronos, when the equator really was the
edge of the earth and nothing lived below it, except, as you said, maybe
turtles.
To Beth:
I probably should have just said that anything which can be figured out
logically should be figured out logically with no further ado. Generally,
we screw things up by doing otherwise. The particular comment about
"leverage" struck me as off-the-wall and probably made-up, but if looked-up,
looked up in the wrong place.michaelm@3comvax.UUCP (Michael McNeil) (09/26/85)
[Line Eater Monster trap. "Come on, make my day!"] > I probably should have just said that anything which can be > figured out logically should be figured out logically with no > further ado. Generally, we screw things up by doing otherwise. Ted Holden has neatly summarized his perspective on human knowledge. Pursuing knowledge scientifically -- that is, when one doesn't know an answer, not merely speculating about it but "asking the world" (i.e., performing experiments) -- produces results which don't fit Ted's preconceptions. As a result, Ted, in true sour-grapes style, argues that we should figure things out "logically with no further ado" because "generally, we screw things up by doing otherwise." The history of science, and the history of knowledge in general, reveals innumerable instances where attempts to figure things out "logically with no further ado" have backfired wildly -- too many "authorities" have been wrong too often. The conclusion of science, in self-defense I might add, has been that "authority" is suspect -- only results which stand the "test against the world" are accepted. Ted's "authority" Velikovsky has proven unable to pass a "world test." Ted, therefore, would have us accept his speculation without evidence. > The particular comment about "leverage" struck me as off-the-wall > and probably made-up, but if looked-up, looked up in the wrong place. You're a fine one, Ted, to complain about quotations out of context. -- Michael McNeil 3Com Corporation ``All disclaimers including this one apply'' (415) 960-9367 ..!ucbvax!hplabs!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm ... if ``dead'' matter has reared up this curious landscape of fiddling crickets, song sparrows, and wondering men, it must be plain even to the most devoted materialist that the matter of which he speaks contains amazing, if not dreadful powers, and may not impossibly be, as Hardy has suggested, ``but one mask of many worn by the Great Face behind.'' Loren Eiseley, *The Immense Journey*, 1946