I have read the books of Velikovsky, who was mentioned at the beginning of David Talbott participation.
For the ones who don't know the events of 1950s, when Velikovsky book "Worlds in Collision" was published, his presentation of planet Venus as the cause of the biblical event known as the ten plagues of Egypt, this publication caused so much revolt that scientists and historians grouped themselves to attack that book, even demanding to stop its publication.
Before Velikovsky, scientists were very happy teaching the solar system has been the same for millions of years. Velikovsky using legends from around the world, and books including the Bible, demonstrated that very recently our solar system have suffered a huge change due to the intervention of planet Venus orbiting in disparate way and changing the orbit of planet Mars.
The reading shows lots coincidences between the legends' narrations worldwide, this includes the Aztecs and Mayans, Chinese and even Greeks. His first book became a best seller in New York. He became so famous that universities started sending him invitations for him to explain his new "theory"
Unfortunately, scientists found the way to stop most of his publications, and they published a book "Scientists against Velikovsky" where in the introduction Asimov gives a warning for scientists and institutions of science of not jumping to the train of Velikovsky because if they do so they can lose the funds for their studies and experiments.
It was a war. Vlikovsky defended himself very well and no one was capable to put him down. Finally, he got old and a young opponent finally overcame the debate. It was an abuse, Velikovsky was barely capable to responds challenges.
From here, when Velikovsky died without glory because his discoveries (which were many), other scientists decades later started to steal his ideas and discoveries. We have Hubble, as an example, who using a camcorder, with his wife I think, walked towards an ancient temple and showed that those rocks actually are meteorites. He made the whole presentation as his "discovery". But it happens that such is what Velikovsky wrote in his book, saying that temples walls were made using meteorites because those rocks came from heaven, in other words, from "god(s)".
Now well, Velikovsky explains that a worldwide "amnesia" happened after each catastrophe in the world, and many people practically forgot about those by several reasons. This is very acceptable, in former pandemics, it was the Catholic Church the one preserving the culture of those times by storage of books in monasteries. In those years of pandemics people forgot art, music, school and more, it was just looking for food and burning anything to make fire and survive the cold weather.
The solar system was way different even before planet Venus passing close to earth in Moses times. Legends say the planet Jupiter illuminated Abraham's path. For this to happen, Jupiter must had been closer to earth.
And this is the question not many can answer: if we see today all the planets the same size as stars from our point of view, and their presence over there doesn't affect us in absolute, then why the ancient people built temples to those gods (planets) and made sacrifices (even human sacrifices) "to calm their fury".
Definitively Velikovsky was right and the current scientific theories about our solar system are no other thing but modern legends. The former ones are way more accurate.
