As students in the 1940's, we were taught the best that the 19th century had to offer. On Sundays, we were taught that the Lord created the earth in six days. During the week we were taught the myth of gradual evolution. We were taught that if we find A and we find B, we can assume that A gradually evolved into B. Fish became mammals; mammals became Neandertals; Neandertals became us. In the world of geology, one age morphed imperceptibly into another. Vast canyons were formed by gradual erosion. Mountains were formed inch by inch. There was no mechanism of change which could not be seen in effect at the current time. {copy Gould on Lyell}

However; there was something strange--the world ages had beginning dates and ending dates. We were shown charts with each age in its own little box. Between the ages there were lines. Had we been more astute, we would have asked what those lines represented. We did not ask. We were called the Silent Generation.

Immanuel Velikovsky did ask. In the 50's, he published two books which woke us up to the fact that the lines on the charts represented lines in the earth. The earth we walk on is built up of layers. Some layers are filled with crushed fossils, the remains of animals which died in horrible events. We now call these events the Great Dyings. There were five major events and many small ones.

Velikovsky said:

(1) that there were physical upheavals of a global character in historical times;

(2) that these catastrophes were caused by extraterrestrial agents; and

(3) that these agents can be identified.

Worlds in Collision, Preface.

Scientific reaction ranged from amusement to fury. The men in the white coats tried to do to Velikovsky what the men in black cassocks had tried to do to Copernicus centuries earlier.