Bananas were intelligently designed, but not by God.

I'm sure a lot of you have seen the video by Kirk Cameron entitled "an atheists worst nightmare, the banana".



For those who haven't seen it here's a link. Basically he argues that the banana is so well designed, being tasty, nutritious and easy to hold and eat that the only possible explanation is that they were designed by God.

My first reaction was to imagine the evolutionary process that produced bananas. Of course a fruit that tastes like crap and is difficult to eat is only going to be eaten as a last resort, whereas a nice, tasty nutritious fruit that is easy to eat will be the first choice for any animal. When a fruit gets eaten it's seeds get distributed far and wide in a handy little package of manure. So by a gradual process of natural selection, the tastiest fruit thrive and spread. Hey presto we have a yummy banana.

I was wrong.

Fortunately, the truth does not support Kirk Camerons argument, but instead blows it completely out of the water.

Here is a natural wild banana



Wild bananas have fairly dry fruits with large seeds and no pulp. In Southeast Asia, the primitive seeded bananas are termed tae manu, meaning animal feces, implying that they are only eaten during times of famine.

The banana we see today is a result of years of selective breeding. So they were inteligently designed.

Here are the inteligent designers, the early native pioneers of agriculture in Papua New Guinea. I'm sure they would appreciate Kirk Cameron's compliment but they'll be the first to admit that they are not Gods.



I'd suggest to Kirk Cameron that next time he does a little research before making silly claims that he can prove the existance of God with a banana.