Banana > Atheist

[brodski]

However, there are EU rules about bananas being too curvy, too.

Isn't that one of those anti-EU urban myths the Daily-Hate-Mail and such are constantly printing? I'm having a pretty hard time imagining DeRFA carrying out conformity assessment on the curvature of bananas.

 

[tkingdoll]

Isn't that one of those anti-EU urban myths the Daily-Hate-Mail and such are constantly printing? I'm having a pretty hard time imagining DeRFA carrying out conformity assessment on the curvature of bananas.

EU regulation 2257/94 states that bananas must be "free of abnormal curvature" and should be at least 5.5 inches long, although that rule is not enforceable in the UK. I believe Asda took the issue to court, hence the ruling that the UK does not have to comply. Unless they've overturned the rule, however, I believe it still exists.

ETA: From 2002: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2066730.stm

 

[rdaneel]

They're discarded at source so are most probably sold to locals, although where possible they breed out the straightness to avoid waste. However, there are EU rules about bananas being too curvy, too. It's all rather silly, really.

Ah man, a hoop bananas would be cool.

 

[Jon.]

That sort of thing steams me... the idea of perfectly good food wasted because it has the wrong appearance. Are they at least doing something sensible such as bringing these too-straight bananas to a food bank or a homeless shelter where the patrons aren't as picky?

Probably at least some are used to make banana products other than fresh bananas (baby food, banana muffins, banana bread, etc.).

 

[ARubberChickenWithAPulley]

Hmmm.... "Notice it has a point at the top for ease of entry... just the right shape for the human mouth... even curved toward the face to make the whole process so much easier."

I didn't realize they endorsed that sort of thing.

 

[Darat]

Hmmm.... "Notice it has a point at the top for ease of entry... just the right shape for the human mouth... even curved toward the face to make the whole process so much easier."

I didn't realize they endorsed that sort of thing.

Damn - that's why I keep poking them up my nose - I eat them the wrong way round!

 

[Beerina]

I've heard Kirk Cameron's banana argument before. If he were only to attempt to shove a pineapple instead of a banana up his rule-8, he would see the speciousness of his argument.

This is the kind of argument an adult half-jokingly tells to an eight year old. That some adult is pretending it is a real argument is something they should be embarassed about.

 

[TragicMonkey]

This is the kind of argument an adult half-jokingly tells to an eight year old. That some adult is pretending it is a real argument is something they should be embarassed about.

It's still better than the crazy neighbors I had once, who taught their kids that Earth is God's "ankle bone". Literally, not metaphorically. Even at age 6, I knew that was stupid.

 

[I'll_buy_that]

It's still better than the crazy neighbors I had once, who taught their kids that Earth is God's "ankle bone". Literally, not metaphorically. Even at age 6, I knew that was stupid.

I don't get that one at all.

is it heard of outside of their own house? do the parents really believe it? or is it just another "thunder is god bowling" kind of stupid thing people say?

 

[TragicMonkey]

I don't get that one at all.

is it heard of outside of their own house? do the parents really believe it? or is it just another "thunder is god bowling" kind of stupid thing people say?

As far as I could tell, their kid believed it literally. I remember trying to explain about the earth revolving around the sun, and the galaxy spinning, but he didn't buy it. (I also engaged this kid in a fist fight once because he stated that Santa Claus didn't exist, and I saw this as a slur upon the honor of my parents "Who would never lie to me!" Whoops!) We were both six years old, so it's possible that he was misinterpreting a jocular statement by his parents.

But his parents really were crazy enough to think the planet was an anklebone. They wouldn't let their kids see "Star Wars" because "there is no such thing as space". The husband used to be Catholic but converted, and his wife didn't want his family Bible in the house because it was tainted or cursed or something, so they gave it to my mom. It's a couple of hundred years old, with family trees written in it, a real heirloom even to a nonbeliever. And all three of their kids grew up to be missionaries and church workers for their cult, I mean, sect. It was some kind of offshoot of Lutheranism, but a pretty wacky one. Judging by their Xmas card photos, they seem to have a prohibition on contact lenses, since they all wear the geekiest-looking glasses I've ever seen.

 

[I'll_buy_that]

"there is no such thing as space".?

did you really hear this? is this cult documented anywhere? i'd like to hear their explanations of the bright orb object i see during the day. it's always been a mystery to me.

Seriously, Lutherine doctrine is very close to Catholic. they may take the bible a bit more literally than catholics, but the doctrine is very similar. I don't think these people were any sort of recognized Lutherine

 

[Meri]

"there is no such thing as space".?

did you really hear this? is this cult documented anywhere? i'd like to hear their explanations of the bright orb object i see during the day. it's always been a mystery to me.

Clearly if the earth is god's ankle bone, the sun must be god's other ankle bone. God takes a step once a day, and so the sun moves through the sky. Or something. And I'm not sure what the moon is.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I don't think these people were any sort of recognized Lutherine

I don't either, but if you asked them what they were, they would say "Lutheran".

 

[Dr Adequate]

Note that a human:

Has hands shaped for holding bananas
Has non-slip surface for banana grapsing
Has color vision to gauge the content of bananas:
Green-too early,
Yellow-just right,
Black-too late.
Has opposable thumbs for peeling bananas
Is bio-degradable
Has mouth shaped for banana eating
Is pleased by the taste of bananas
Has mouth facing towards the banana to make eating process easy

We must conclude that humans were specially designed by the Creator for the express purpose of eating bananas.

Now I feel hungry ... I must go amd perform my humble function in God's great plan.

 

[rdaneel]

We must conclude that humans were specially designed by the Creator for the express purpose of eating bananas.

Of course this doesn't mean we have any relation to monkeys, not at all, no siree bob, why would you even think that?

 

[Dr Adequate]

Monkeys were created to eat the bananas which are too high up for humans to reach.

God thinks of everything!

 

[vbloke]

 

[Tirdun]

IF only we could harness the logic of the bannana and crockoduck, we would have a truly awesome God proving tool.

 

[slingblade]

I have precisely the opposite experience... by tugging on the stem, it smushes the top of the banana before it breaks.

Blasphemers. This is why god invented knives.

I always thought most banana-eating monkeys opened them in the middle? I can't recall ever seeing a monkey peel a banana, but rather break it open and scoop out the nanner, or hold it to the mouth and kind of suck it out.

But then, I've been awake almost 24 hours again, and you all know what that means, don't you?

No, neither do I.

 

[Ducky]

from the kirk cameron debate thread:

I love the banana argument due to one simple fact:

Bananas in the form referred to by Cameron were in fact intelligently designed -- by a long history of botanists and farmers crossbreeding the seeds out of the banana fruit. They are in current form today essentially cloned (much like potatoes are.)

So yes, they are evidence of intelligent design. Of course, it's man's very earthly and science-based intelligent design.


ETA:

Some sources for the claims above:

http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/groc...netic_engineering_against_fungal_disease.html

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0719-02.htm

from the above link:

The banana's main problem is that it has become sterile and seedless as a result of 10,000 years of selective breeding. It has, over time, become a plant with unvarying genetic sameness. The genetic diversity needed to cope with environmental stresses, such as diseases and crop pests, has long ago been bred out of the banana. Consequently, the banana plantations of the world are completely vulnerable to devastating environmental pressures.

http://wwww.cirad.fr/presentation/programmes/biotrop/resultats/biositecirad/transfo/bananatg.htm

http://www.tytyga.com/publication/The+History+and+Evolution+of+Banana+Tree+Hybrids

from the above link:

Those first bananas that people knew in antiquity were not sweet like the bananas we know today, but were cooking bananas or plantain bananas with a starchy taste and composition. The bright yellow bananas that we know today were discovered as a mutation from the plantain banana by a Jamaican, Jean Francois Poujot, in the year 1836. He found this hybrid mutation growing in his banana tree plantation with a sweet flavor and a yellow color—instead of green or red, and not requiring cooking like the plantain banana. The rapid establishment of this new exotic fruit was welcomed worldwide, and it was massively grown for world markets.

All Cameron shows in arguing the Banana as evidence of god is his complete lack of knowledge about the history of breeding bananas for the world's food markets.