Dr. R asks:
"Could organic material come from space and land on the earth intact? (Intact as opposed to meteoric vaporization.)"
Actually yes. In fact it is far more likely that organic material would land intact than that it would survive intact in space. I doesn't matter how hard a bacteria falls through the atmosphere ... it isn't going to be hurt by the impact. Surviving the UV of sunlight, of course, is quite another matter.
"What makes it biological?"
I think this statement is where real science meets the science writer. I suspect biological means organic as in composted of carbohydrates ... and oh how I'd like to know whether it also contained proteins.
I find it quite reasonable that there are huge amounts of organic material floating around in space. That is both proven and no big surprise. And panspermia to me is a joke in that it had to start somewhere so why not here and the simple fact is that our planet is rather ordinary. The only people not willing to acknowledge that is us.
I think Velikovsky not an idiot but certainly not someone who applied the scientific method with rigor. Some of what he wrote may be correct. Much of what he wrote obviously is not. One part of his writing I am quite willing to believe, which may surprise many, is that I don't find Venus straying from its orbit that hard to comprehend ... though I highly doubt it was Venus that did it.
I am not that impressed with contemporary mankind so am an very unwilling to say that our ancestors were complete knumbskulls. The origin of Venus and Mars as gods with their associated mythology may not be just chance. After all ... how is it that Jupiter ended up as the King of the gods when there is no "possible" way any ancient could have known its size. Coincidence? Hmmmmm.
