4.30.2006

I prefer to eat them myself.

It's Science Sunday. I don't usually post on this subject as I know nothing about it, but I want to use this space to refute an exciting new development in Intelligent Design theory, the banana argument.

The link is to a video where Kirk Cameron, who you may know from the 80s television masterpiece "Growing Pains" and some Kiwi guy present to us "the atheist's nightmare", the banana.

First of all the banana because of some grooves in it, is the perfect shape for the human hand, because of some grooves in it. The banana skin also has an ideal non-stick surface which makes it easy to thrust the banana through your gripped hand repeatedly, as some Kiwi guy demonstrates to us. It is colour coded, making it easy for you to know when the banana is ready for consumption and it has a special tab on the top which makes it easy to peel, without the contents squirting in your face. Once peeled the revealed banana "has a point at the top for easy entry, it's just the right shape for the human mouth, it's chewy, easy to digest and it's even curved towards the face to make the whole process that much easier". Oh and the wrapper is bio-degradable. Nice one God.

Ok he made some good points but, in my opinion, if God designed the banana it wasn't exactly intelligently, in fact I think he might have been drunk that day.

For instance. Why yellow? What kind of colour is that for something you want to stick in your mouth? A bit garish and over the top isn't it?

Ok, right shape for the mouth, easy entry good, good, but why is soft and mushy so ideal? Sure, it's easy on the teeth, but where's the fun in it? Wouldn't it be better if the banana was edible right from the tree? It wouldn't have to be peeled at all, it would be just sitting there on the tree, (preferably a short one that you don't have to kill yourself climbing) ready to eat. You could take your time with it, savoring the flavour more, as well as enjoying the smooth sensation of it's ideal for the mouth curve for longer. And who says you don't want the contents to squirt in your face? I thought that was half the fun?

Well, judging by the way Some Kiwi Guy handles his banana you'd think that. And what kind of name is Rob Comfort anyway?

5 comments:

Catalin C. Vasii said...

And also God made european people unathletic to be easier to kill by canibals, and with fresh tasty meat, I suppose....

Cranky McGee said...

Nothing gets Cranky more cranky than fundamentalists. The modern banana is a domesticated plant engineered by man. The one the Kiwi is holding in his hand is probably a seedless variety that has no method to reproduce except by grafting. Due to its lack of variation, it is threatened to go extinct unless scientists find a way to fight off the fungus that's killing it off.

The wild banana evolved as a plant that uses a type of seed dispersal common among fruit plants. They produce a sweet, edible fruit that entices animals to eat it and shit the seeds out someplace farther down the road.

OK... Cranky is off of his science teacher soapbox now.

Jennifer Wertkin said...

I like that you have to peel it. It means you don't have to wash it!
xo
jw

Nick said...

Actually, the perfect fruit would be one that fell off the tree and into your mouth by itself, thus removing all effort from the equation. You'd at least think that any worthwhile god would have put some kind of copyright notice on the side, just to stop anyone else stealing the idea.

Ronald said...

Surprisingly, considering the subject is bananas, I'm not going to take the predictable route with sexual references or innuendo. Besides, someone's already beaten me to it. No, this time It's my intention to raise the level of conversation, by bringing in a technical phrase, known by philosphers everywhere, namely, "The theory dependence of observation". To put it simply, in order to observe anything, we need a theory to guide us. Restated, theory precedes seeing. Philosophically, this can be tricky, but the topic in question is still a good example. In order to believe the banana "tells" us of the existence of God, then you have to hold that theory beforehand. But the truth is, the banana itself tells us nothing, and neither does anything else in the Universe. We prod and poke about and make up stories (theories), and this we call Science. So in a nutshell, there is no meaning out there in the great cosmos other than what we put into it. Personally, I like to think of it as making it up as we go along.

Anyway, when I look at a banana, I don't see the work of God, I see a c...

Ooops! almost did it again. Anyway, I hope you understood what I was getting at.