Who designed the banana?
Looking at a banana from a design perspective, one immediately notices the fruit is highly ergonomic and sophisticated: Bananas fit perfectly in the human hand, they come with a non-slip surface, a bio-degradable packaging that is easy to open, and they have an advanced informative skin that turns yellow when the product is ready for consumption – green means not yet, brown means too late.
The design of the banana is so good, some evangelists – like the one in the video – present it as evidence that an ‘intelligent designer’ must have created the fruit. These evangelists however, makes a quintessential mistake on the static origins of ‘nature’, as they ignore that the bananas we eat today are hardly products of old nature. Rather, they are the result of thousands of years of domestication by people.
Archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence suggests that banana cultivation goes back to at least 5000 BCE. The design banana’s we eat cannot even reproduce without the hand of man, as they have no seeds – they are all clones, which makes the species highly vulnerable to diseases.
Wild bananas are still around, yet they are much less ergonomically adjusted for human consumption as they have have numerous large, hard seeds. Perhaps in the far future evangelists will present coke bottles as evidence for their ‘intelligent designer’ argument?
Related: A designers take on intelligent design, Banana Juice box, Banana inspired harddisk casing. Thanks Billy.
Eventually all fruit will be cubical. Related: Modernistic Watermelon http://www.nextnature.net/?p=1516
Most interestingly: bananas are hexaploid (six genomes per cell) hybrids generated by crossing two different species from the Musa genus. Not very natural…
Very Intelligent Design indeed. Why weren’t all fruit and vegetables created in the shape of a banana? They would suit the shape of your hand so much bettter…
That wild banana looks like shite.
So “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is gospel now, huh? Douglas Adams fans everywhere finally get their recognition. Anyone who draws theological arguments from a science fiction book should be shot into space- they can tell us how god looks from there.
Thats not the way to open a banana!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJV56WUDng
Atheist nightmare! Even monkeys know better!
Those evangelists love tripping over the same stone again and again.
oh, and that ’skin information system’ - the dumb ass, wild bananas don’t turn yellow either
God must have meant for us to eat only bananas!
Containing three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber,
a banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy.
Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout.
No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world’s leading athletes.
But energy isn’t the only way a banana can help us keep fit.
regards