Thursday, March 09, 2006

(146) Writing Sting in and out of it

From the commencement of my anti-Darwinian TV series project, in June 1997, I had Sting in mind as the best possible presenter.
On October 20th 1997, a letter with a synopsis outlining our idea was sent from Red Door Productions to his TV agent.
A few days later the chess report in The Daily Telegraph mentioned that Sting and the ex-Argentine soccer international, Ossie Ardilles, were amongst celebrities who would be playing against World Champion Gary Kasparov in a simultaneous chess display on November 8th at the Cobden Club in London. http://www.cobdenclub.co.uk/ http://widgetaday.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/kasparov-and-sting/
It was to be in aid of the Fragile Eggs Society, which, apparently, was a hereditary genetic condition leading to learning disability. I had never heard of this condition, but discovered that it is actually Fragile X and concerns a malefic mutation of the X chromosome.
http://www.fragilex.org.uk/
In my synopsis I observed that of all the difficulties facing neo-Darwinism the problem of spontaneous genetic mutations leading to beneficial novelty in form ought to be the greatest cause for concern, because the known spontaneous mutations leading to inheritable novelty are damaging, e.g. Down’s syndrome, Huntingdon’s disease, cystic fibrosis, dwarfism etc.

Darwinists appeal to the law of large numbers and argue that because malefic mutations occur this means that useful ones do too. It is from those that are helpful that natural selection chooses.
Yet their only cited examples of useful spontaneous mutations are sickle cell anemia and resistance to antibiotics and pesticides.

Sickle cell anemia trait, which does indeed promote resistance to malaria, also debilitates those who get it, and unless you can show that the genes which promote resistance to antibiotics and pesticides were not already there in the stem population then you cannot argue that it was the mutations that produced them.
They could have been there from the start.

Darwinists’ confidence that sufficient spontaneous mutations leading to beneficial novelty in form have occurred (in the correct sequences) strikes me as rather like the argument that because circa eighteen thousand meteorites are calculated to hit the Earth each year, it is possible for some to land and do you favours, such as excavating (or combining to excavate) a needed hole, or concussing a mugger.

Well, yes it could happen. But don’t hold your breath.

This Fragile X, only discovered in 1991, was just one more such malefic spontaneous mutation to a gene, creating no useful novelty in form but rather learning disabilities.

I obtained a press pass and attended the event on November 8th, clutching the synopsis that had been sent to Sting’s agent two weeks earlier. I hoped that the possibility of discussing it with Sting personally might present itself. 
I was struck by his making an appearance in the chess world – one of the very few routes via which I could have hoped to gain direct access to him – just after we made our approach, and in a context directly related to the principle criticism of Darwinism. It was like I had written him into my life, a feeling that was strengthened when I was informed by a lady connected with the charity that its headquarters were a mile or two from my home in Hastings.
But when Sting, Kasparov and the President of the British Chess Federation, ex-World snooker Champion Steve Davies, were in an alcove off stage prior to emerging for a photo call, something happened which quite threw me. One of the people who ran the club was suggesting an order of events whereby Davies would come on first and introduce Kasparov, and then Sting.

In a loud voice Sting declaimed, "No! I think you should introduce ME first!"
This Davies subsequently did. He and Sting stayed only for about fifteen minutes, whilst Kasparov spent over four hours on the display.

I was taken aback by Sting’s behaviour, and when an opportunity later arose I did not approach him with my idea.

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