Catastrophe is an essential force in nature, not aberrational, but inevitable. Catastrophe is a creative event that we must accept as such. There is no antiscientism about such a philosophical acceptance, nor should this book be considered an attack on science. Rather, it hopes to offer a slightly different perspective on our understanding of the universe. With that viewpoint we intend to point out once again what the British biologist J. B. S. Haldane had learned at the close of a long and distinguished career: "The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics, Roger W. Wescott, writes:“Fred Warshofsky, a prize-winning science writer, has here produced an excellent short overview of catastrophic theories on nearly everything from the “Big Bang” that could have created the cosmos to the thermonuclear holocaust that may terminate social order on Earth.”“Admirers of Immanuel Velikovsky will, I think, be almost equally pleased with chapter 3, “Worlds in Collision” (pp. 35-63 in the paperback edition), which gives one of the clearest and fairest summaries of “The Velikovsky Affair” that I have ever read. To be sure, Velikovskian literature is now so voluminous that even Velikovskians have difficulty digesting it. The result is that, in five of the other eleven chapters, the author makes statements which either implicitly or explicitly contradict the contents of chapter 3. (While Warshofsky is under no obligation to accept Velikovsky’s views on all subjects, I feel that if — as appears to be the case — he finds the basic Velikovskian thesis convincing, he ought to try to inform his readers of the points on which he disagrees significantly with Velikovsky and the reasons for the disagreement.)” ..“Overall, however, I found Doomsday — despite its garish title — smoothly written, well balanced, and informative.”
