The Banana: An Atheist's Worst Nightmare

[Art]

'in the following interviews with evolution beleavers look how often they say 'I don't know' 'I'm not sure' 'It just happens'...'

Believing in some made-up simplistic twaddle means never having to say that!

[petemaskreplica]

I couldn't bear to watch more than 30 seconds of that, is the banana thing the "argument" that God must exist because bananas have a tab to peel them with, a bit like a zip or something? That's such a fatuous piece of crap, it really annoys me. Here's a counter-argument: if God's so damn clever he can design a peelable banana, why didn't he design a fertile banana? The fatal flaw in the "intelligent design" theory is that nothing is perfectly adapted to its circumstances, everything is just about capable, very rarely anything more. If there is a god, he's a bodger.

[Adrian Bamforth]

'The fatal flaw in the "intelligent design" theory is that nothing is perfectly adapted to its circumstances, everything is just about capable'

...and obviously anything that wasn't compatible died out.

There's another argument a JW put to me which was that isn't it a coincidence that the Earth is just the right temperature and distance from the sun etc to sustain life. Perfect backwards logic. Well, if you wait for billions of years (and JWs now accept that the Earth wasn't created in 7 literal "days") the right circumstances may just arise.

Incidentally, some Christians/creationists now refer to non-creationists as "the ration-based community". As if that's somehow a bad thing!!

Can't bring myself to watch the banana clip, but there's more madness here - be sure to read the touching ode to the one-eyed mutated kitty.

Link: http://www.lostworldmuseum.com/

[Quirkafleeg]

monkeys eat banana's from the non-'tab' end. (It's actually easier to peel a  banana from that end ... which I think I learnt on R&J)

And I suppose god must have fucked up creating all those other hard-to-eat fruits...

[Art]

is the banana thing the "argument" that God must exist because bananas have a tab to peel them with, a bit like a zip or something?

I beleive that - ignoring any points about bananas being easy to eat being a greta way of spreading bannana seeds and that unopenable bananas would drop and rot next to the tree unopened and thsu fail to spread, and also any points about supermarket bananas being a cultiavted derivative of the form the plant takes in the wild, andother sensible point that would occur to a non-idiot in half a second - this is what passes for humour in faith-based circles, rather than being a full on pro-ID argument.

[Gothmog]

Following their rationale that buildings don't build themselves and paintings don't paint themselves so everything must have a creator so God exists and that make them happy.

But why do they stop there, surely the argument must follow that God couldn't have popped into being on it's own, it must have a creator which must've had it's own creator and so on and so forth ad infintum.

They don't like the big bang theory (I'll admit it's always sounded a bit weird to me as well - there was nothing then there was everything.  How odd is that?) but they'll happily accept there's an omnipitent, omnipresent being that exists seemingly totally exempt from their own rules of creation.

[Gothmog]

Oh and one more thing if God is so good at designing food like bananas what happened with stuff like chestnuts eh?
I like roasted chestnuts but getting into freshly dropped/picked ones is often painful.  No useful ringpulls on those things.

[SamuelAWilkinson]

They don't like the big bang theory (I'll admit it's always sounded a bit weird to me as well - there was nothing then there was everything. How odd is that?) but they'll happily accept there's an omnipitent, omnipresent being that exists seemingly totally exempt from their own rules of creation.

There is a way of getting around that one, but it had to be thought up by some uber-clever philosophers over several hundred years, so I doubt the kind of person who counts the banana as proof of God's existence could possibly hope to comprehend it.

[Radbacker]

what I thinks funny about Intelligent Design(kinda miss-named IMHO) is the fact that lack of solid proof for all evolution(conclusive fossile record etc)is proof of God?  WTF how can lack of evidence be evidence?

bah we were all created by aliens anyway, which is certainly intelligent design, ET is God.

CU Radbacker

[TordelBack]

This has now been churning away in my skull all night, and while I know such fatuous crud doesn't warrant any further thought, but...  

If we can identify the 'fact' that the banana is a fine bit of divine product design, God's nutritious ergonomic gift to His opposable thumb creations, we are presumably ascribing a specific intention to God's actions in creating such a boon, and thus get a little window on God's attitudes towards His Creation - benevolent, indulgent, thoughtful, possibly a bit witty?  Might we not then ponder the intention and attitudes behind other magnificent examples of 'design', such as hydrocephaly, progeria, malaria, tsunamis, Mark Millar?  What kind of personality puts time and effort into refining those little treassures?  Ho ho God, You are a wag.  Let me prostrate myself before Your clearly superior moral judgement!  

(While an evangelical atheist myself, I'm by no means suggesting here that this is a valid argument to make about the nature of the Christian God - it's equally vacuous, and long addressed by sensible theologians under the 'Why does God allow suffering?" banner - I'm just throwing up an equally farcical conclusion from the same 'banana postulate', because I hate those tossers so very much.  I have a lot of respect for the teachings ascribed to Jesus, and much time for the attitudes of most of the sincere Christians I know - it's just turds like these with their bully-boy "but your wife and children wil DIE and go to HELL if you don't agree with us" tactics.  Filth).

[Satanist]

I always liked Bill Hicks theory.

Look at the Duck Billed Platypus - There is a God and he smokes dope!

[Leigh S]

Having read the 4 available issues of Pat Mills Requiem last night, I say: "Hell? bring it on!"

[ThryllSeekyr]

The young guy on the right used to appear in a televisioin add for Mattel' Masters of the universe' action figures and playsets when he was much much younger.

[paulvonscott]

"Why does God allow suffering?"

You think he could at least stop his priests mucking about with kiddies.

The average British Christian just getting on with their own life and faith, good luck to them.  

The evenagelical lot from America who get stuff banned, elect morons to rule over the world, put bananas in your face etc. and are making their presence felt over here now, just creep me out.

[Funt Solo]

I shouldn't waste my time thinking about this either - but after the initial laughter, a resentment rises.

They lie:  95% of the USA is not Christian.  It's more like 76%.

They cheat:  by presenting their banana science fiction as fact.

They're bigoted:  towards anyone who doesn't agree with them.

They bully people:  calling a nice bloke who's never done them any harm a "liar, a thief, a philanderer and a blasphemer".

Fuckers.  They make me want to break a more serious commandment.  I'd like to see the outtakes from their little propoganda movie - where less patient passersby thump them or tell them to stick their bigoted bullshit and their banana up their arse to feed their face.

"Brainery", indeed.