Did anybody read Plait’s “Bad Astronomy”?

Certainly I did, but that was nearly ten years ago. Unfortunately most of my books are currently in storage, so I sometimes have to make do with the web and my memory.

“Did anybody read Plait’s “Bad Astronomy”?”

In my case, no. Not out of total disinterest, but I perused the table of contents at the bookstore and it was evident that reading the whole thing would be redundant.

From the paperback edition, page 184:
“Initially, in 1950, when the Macmillan publishing house was preparing the manuscript for publication, the scientific community caught a whiff of it. In particular, a Harvard astronomer named Harlow Shapley wrote several vitriolic letters to the editors at Macmillan–correctly, mind you–that Velikovsky’s ideas were wrong, and that Macmillan was doing everyone a disservice by publishing them”
Plait did read that there were hints that the scientific community that Shapley would use his influence to urge a boycott against Macmillan for publishing Velikovsky’s work.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that Sagan came into the Velikovsky debate. Sagan was then the leading figure in astronomy and had considerable pull with the media. So, a debate was held. On page 185, Plait un-deifies Sagan:
“On the side of science, there was much posturing and posing. Sagan–for whom I have tremendous respect both as a scientist and as someone who popularized teaching astronomy to the public–did a terrible job debunking Velikovsky’s ideas. He made straw-man arguments, and attacked only small details of Velikovsky’s claims.

Soon after, according to Plait, the idea that the universe was stable and slow to change would fly out the window, like a streaking comet. This would be after the evidence came in that the universe could display disaster in a real and almost incomprehensible sense.

For Sagan’s part, he learned that even a fool such as Velikovsky must be allowed to utter his nonsense: not even a fool should be silenced and censored. Who knows how many great books were lost in the final sacking of the Great Library at Alexandria? But then, who knows how many utterly wrong and foolish books were lost, too? Both were great losses to humanity.

Yeah, keep this day on your calender, but don’t keep it sacred. Mr. Sagan would not be happy with his deification. He was just happy if you learned something new about the universe. Keep on learning.

On the other hand, what have you to say about Velikovsky censoring his own work, as a tactic to evade legitimate rebuttals? Velikovsky excised his book’s technical addendum as an attempt to keep newer readers from seeing the positively stark contrast between his thesis and the known behaviors of real things out here in the World.

Also some people are not big fans of Sagan. Most of these people think making astronomy popular is a bad thing, and only a few should have access to the infomation.

I consider myself a Saganite because I think astronomy is for all and I love the night sky.

Have a good Sagan Day.