C. Leroy Ellenberger

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C. Leroy Ellenberger at Fernbank Museum, Atlanta, GA, Oct 2005.

Charles Leroy Ellenberger (b.1942, known as C. Leroy) is perhaps best known as a one-time advocate,[1] but now a prolific critic of controversial writer Immanuel Velikovsky and his works on catastrophism. In 1979, he became a contributing editor (and later Senior Editor & Executive Secretary) to the Velikovsky-inspired Kronos journal,[2] and has contributed material to many other publications. [3]. In 1984, Ellenberger noted:

" Over the past four years I have come to appreciate that, even if Velikovsky were right, there are good physical reasons why astronomers and other scientists have opposed him so tenaciously. Unfortunately, many of these reasons, often based on information developed since Velikovsky wrote his books, have never been discussed in Velikovskian forums or have never been discussed in a fully informed manner. Examples of the former include the Worzel Ash, ice cores, and plate tectonics. Examples of the latter include tree rings, ice age dynamics, geomagnetism, and cosmic electricity.
" Most often, spokesmen for mainstream science such as Sagan, Asimov, Gardner, and Oberg have not expressed their criticisms using valid arguments but, rather, tend to substitute polemic, ridicule, and caricature for serious discussion. The resulting performances are riddled with errors and are received by Velikovskian partisans with diminished credibility. Their fixation on Velikovsky's text to the exclusion of later researchers in Pensée and KRONOS has also been a source of frustration. As a result, focus has been shifted away from substantive criticism in depth with more cogent criticisms having gotten side-tracked."[4]

Ellenberger's most widely read criticisms of Velikovsky were two 1985 correspondences to Nature: "Falsifying Velikovsky" vol. 316, p. 386, and "Velikovsky's evidence?" vol. 318, p. 204, and two 1987 letters to the editor in New York Times: May 15, p. 14, and August 29, p. 14.

In 1994, Ellenberger was disinvited from a conference on Velikovsky because other participants said they would not attend if he participated.[5] Previously, he was an invited speaker at Milton Zysman's August 1990 "Reconsidering Velikovsky" Conference at University of Toronto and he was the keynote speaker at the August 1992 Canadian Society for Interdisciplinary Studies conference in Haliburton, Ontario. He is also the author of the article "Top Ten Reasons Why Velikovsky Is Wrong About Worlds In Collision" which he says:

".. is based on 30 years exposure to Velikovsky's ideas which includes 8 years as an insider at the Velikovsky journal Kronos (1978 - 1986), confidant to Velikovsky (4/78 - 11/79), invited "Devil's Advocate" at Aeon ('88 - '91), and 13 years as a turncoat/critic interacting with Velikovsky's defenders and/or successors at conferences, in private, and in Usenet ('94 -'96) & list-serve forums"[6]

At the Toronto conference, where British astronomer Victor Clube was the keynote speaker, Ellenberger finally came to understand why Clube and Napier's Taurid complex model of energetic, episodic interaction between Earth and Comet Encke with its then-heavy debris streams all through the Holocene, which provided an astronomically feasible explanation for the origin of the sky-combat myths that motivated Velikovsky, was the most scientifically valid and intellectually satisfying replacement for Velikovsky-inspired models of recent, interplanetary catastrophism.[7] Since 1990 Ellenberger has actively promoted Clube & Napier's model, now named "coherent catastrophism", in articles for Skeptic,[8] C&C Review,[9] and Catastrophism and Ancient History,[10] letters to editors,[11] postcard mailing campaigns to Velikovskians,[12] and posts to Usenet discussion groups.[13]

Ellenberger has degrees in chemical engineering and finance & operations research (B.S., Washington Univ.; M.B.A., Univ. of Pennsylvania). He is currently a Medical Article Retrieval Specialist in St. Louis, Missouri,[14]

Notes

  1. ^ Kronos Vol. X No. 3 (Summer 1985) p.2 "Contributors"
  2. ^ Kronos Vol. IV No. 4 (Summer 1979) p.2 "Contributors"
  3. ^ For example, Ellenberger has had Velikovsky-related material published in Science Digest, New Leader, The Humanist, Industrial Research & Development, Fate, and the SIS Review, (ref: Kronos Vol. IV No. 4 (Summer 1979) p.2 "Contributors"), and articles on other subjects in Analog, New Scientist, Penthouse, Science Digest, Fate and Pursuit., (ref: KronosVol. X No. 3 (Summer 1985) p.2 "Contributors")
  4. ^ Kronos Vol. X No. 1 (Fall 1984) "Still Facing Many Problems"
  5. ^ Henry H. Bauer, Science Or Pseudoscience: magnetic healing, psychic phenomena, and other heterodoxies (2001) University of Illinois Press, p.154, ISBN 0252026012 (Bauer's book misreports the conference year as 1992.)
  6. ^ "Top Ten Reasons Why Velikovsky Is Wrong About Worlds In Collision"
  7. ^ Reading Clube's June 1982 remarks to the British S.I.S., where he observed "Velikovsky suspected violent events from the mythology--and invented an astronomical 'theory' to explain it all. Our quite different theory predicts violent events _from the scientific evidence_, and the problem is to see whether the prediction is compatible with the mythology." (Clube, Victor. "Cometary Catastrophes and the Ideas of Immanuel Velikovsky", S.I.S. Review V:4, 1984, pp. 106-11) was too subtle for Ellenberger to fully appreciate the superiority of Clube & Napier's model over Velikovsky's.
  8. ^ Ellenberger, Leroy (1995). An Antidote to Velikovskian Delusions. Skeptic, 3 (4), 49-51. Posted to talk.origins, 2 Feb. 1996: <http://groups.google.com/group/talk.origins/msg/bc31349d10f8e205?>
  9. ^ Ellenberger, C. Leroy (1992). Celestial Hazard vs. Celestial Fantasy. C&C Review, XIV, 41-4.
  10. ^ Ellenberger, C. Leroy (1990). Tisserand and a Trojan to the Rescue. Catastrophism and Ancient History XII (2), 206-18.
  11. ^ The Sciences, Jul/Aug 1991, p. 56; Skeptic, 4 (3), 22, and Skeptical Inquirer, Sep/Oct 1997, pp. 60-1.
  12. ^ For example: 75 "To those interested in Velikovsky" dated Oct 24, 1990; 134 "Clube & Napier Update", Aug 2, 1994; 311 "Dawn Behind the Dawn", Oct 23, 1995; and 150 "The Nexus of History & Religion with Astronomy, Apr 27, 1996
  13. ^ For example: "DAVID N. TALBOTT: Hoist, Clueless & 'Nihilated", talk.origins 13 Jul 1994 <http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/cle/cle-talbott.txt>; "Information on Velikovsky", sci.skeptic 14 Aug 1997; and "Worlds Still Colliding", talk.origins 26 Feb 2001.
  14. ^ "C. Leroy Ellenberger - Medical Article Retrieval Specialist" (Web site)

See also

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