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OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
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Daviv Hatcher Childress
Bananas
Bananas were introduced into the Atlantis debate by Ignatius Donnelly who adapted the views of Otto Kuntze and questioned[021.57] whether “it was more reasonable to suppose that the plantain or banana was cultivated by the people of Atlantis and carried by their civilised agricultural colonies to the east and the west?” Over a century later it was still being suggested that only the existence of Atlantis could explain the global spread of the seedless, sexless fruit that we enjoy today(a). David Hatcher Childress in his Lost Cities of Ancient Lemuria and the Pacific[1229] suggested that ancient genetic engineering led to the banana we have today. Theosophical belief is that “the banana was developed from a melon on the lost continent of Atlantis.”(d) Not to be outdone, Erich von Däniken claimed[0272.202] that the banana has been brought to Earth by extraterrestrials(e)!
>At the other end of the belief spectrum, Ray Comfort, a Christian creationist and televangelist, used the banana to demolish the theory of evolution. In 2006 video clip(f) he offered up the ‘ironclad argument’ that bananas are proof of God’s intelligent design of the natural world because “the banana and the hand are perfectly made, one for the other.”
“Behold, the atheists’ nightmare!” declares Comfort, before detailing the many user-friendly features of bananas, which include its “non-slip surface,” “tab at the top” for easy opening, and convenient shape which is “even curved toward the face to make the whole process so much easier.”(f)
I can only say that with such an idiotic statement, Mr. Comfort himself cannot claim to be the result of intelligent design.<
A more sober view of the diffusion of the banana from southeast Asia is to be found on the academia.edu website(b). The BBC also offers an article on the cultural importance of the fruit in the region(g).
(a) https://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.ie/search/label/Bananas (link broken July 2018) See: Archive 3586
(c) http://www.mondoernesto.com/2010/06/who-genetically-engineered-banana.html
(d) https://in5d.com/plants-trees-and-foods-brought-to-earth-by-alien-gods/
(e) forgetomori » Erich von Daniken: Fraud, Lies and Bananas (archive.org)
(f) https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/ray-comforts-banana-argument_n_4847082.html