Yes, We Have No Bananas

HC199, RA#2

Note: video in question can be found online at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5479410612081345878

Introduction

This analysis will focus on a video clip of a television program called The Way of the Master, staring Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. The specific episode is entitled "The Beauty of a Broken Spirit – Atheism," and the relevant portion begins at 03:00 and runs until about 05:15 (Cameron and Comfort).

In the segment, Comfort makes an argument that a banana is "an atheist's worst nightmare" because of its clever design. Comfort notes that a banana is pre-wrapped, fits perfectly in the human hand and mouth, has a "pop top" for easy opening, desirable color and flavor, and is biodegradable. Based on this, Comfort concludes that the banana has been intelligently designed, and therefore there must be an intelligent designer. This intelligent designer must be God, which in turn validates the existence of God.

The program's stated objective is to show viewers how to "effectively share their faith" with non-believers, making its stated purpose informative. Cameron and Comfort attempt to arm their viewers with arguments to convince atheists that God exists, and religious faith is preferable to atheism. With respect to the segment in question, the underlying purpose is not to inform but to put forth a persuasive argument for Intelligent Design.

This analysis will first attempt to determine who composes the primary and secondary audiences of The Way of the Master. This will greatly affect whether or not the video segment in question is informative, persuasive, or both. Because the program's fundamental purpose is to persuade atheists of the merits of Intelligent Design (by way of proxy: viewers will presumably be the ones making the argument), Comfort's argument will be evaluated using the Toulmin model.

Audience

The Way of the Master (TWOTM) is broadcast to more than a hundred countries via satellite. Trinity Broadcasting Network, JCtv, Faith TV, Family Net, Total Living Network, Cornerstone Television, Christian Television Network, and numerous other Christian and family oriented television stations air Comfort and Cameron's program (The Way of the Master).

An examination of one of these stations—Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)—says much about target audiences of TWOTM. TBN is a 24 hour channel carried by 5,000 stations, 33 satellites, and cable systems estimated to be in the thousands. TBN has also benefited from must-carry rules that put it in 95% of American households (Becker). According to TBN, they are "…the world's largest religious network and America's most watched faith channel. TBN provides 24 hours of commercial-free inspirational programming that appeal to people in a wide variety of Protestant, Catholic, and Messianic Jewish denominations." TBN claims their programming is watched by over 5 million viewers in the United States, and reaches an estimated 95 million U.S. households. TBN humorously claims their programs have "High Secular Appeal" (Trinity Broadcasting Network).

It is clear that the typical viewer of TBN is not secular; all of their programming has an overarching religious theme. A Fruitcake Christmas ("Join Hermie and his pals for yet another Christian adventure!"), Jesus, Divine or Da Vinci ("Is Jesus the Divine Son of God as recorded in the New Testament? Or is Jesus a mortal man as identified in the popular book, The Da Vinci Code?"), Tribulation ("You know it's faith, when it's all you have left."), and other programs listed on TBN's website are painfully unappealing to secularists. Then, of course, there's TWOTM, which claims to be "…a ministry of Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, whose purpose is to teach Christians how to share the gospel effectively, biblically…the way Jesus did" (Trinity Broadcasting Network).

So Cameron and Comfort's primary audience consists of people who are religious, and more specifically, Christians. TBN has several different networks targeted at different market segments; TWOTM airs on Mondays (4-4:30 PM PST) and Wednesdays (3:30-4:00 AM PST) on a network targeted towards adults and the elderly. This means the program airs in the coveted 5-7 PM time slot for Mountain, Central and Eastern time zones. The morning program starts between 4:30 and 6:30 AM, which targets adults in Mountain, Central and Eastern time zones. From this schedule, it is clear this program is targeted towards adults and the elderly. It also ignores the entire Pacific time zone (4 PM is too early in the day, and nobody is watching television at 3:30 AM on a Wednesday), which means the primary audience consists of people living in Mountain, Central and Eastern time zones.

The secondary audience consists of intellectuals, academics and secularists. This seems like a strange secondary audience, but the video strikes a resoundingly dissonant chord with this audience. For example, the clip was shown in a talk by Oregon State Professor Stevan Arnold entitled "Intelligent Design and Evolutionary Biology: When Worlds Collide" to a full audience of students and academics (Arnold). The video's fantastically unscientific methods make it an irresistible target for anyone who opposes Intelligent Design or has a vested interest in evolutionary theory.

Analysis ("Yes, We Have No Bananas")

TWOTM claims to provide viewers with ways they can share their beliefs with atheists and non-believers, which makes its stated purpose to inform viewers. For the video clip in question, the underlying purpose is to arm viewers with an argument in favor of Intelligent Design. These viewers would then use this argument against atheists, implying that the actual purpose of the video segment is to indirectly inform atheists of the merits of Intelligent Design and the fallacy of evolutionary theory.

The Toulmin model can be used to analyze Comfort's argument in favor of Intelligent Design:

Claim: Because the banana is perfect for human consumption, there must be an intelligent designer.

Support: Banana fits perfectly into human hand, comes pre-wrapped, has desirable color and flavor, has a "pop-top" much like a soda can (which also had an intelligent designer), and is biodegradable.

Warrant: The Intelligent Designer must be God.

Comfort's support is not debatable. Bananas are fit for human consumption. And, his claim is not debatable either: commercial bananas were "intelligently designed." However, his error is in the warrant: God is not the Intelligent Designer of Comfort's banana. Arnold notes in his presentation that "…the banana is a domesticated plant, and its fruit has partly arrived at its current configuration under the agency of deliberate selection by humans. Consequently, the banana is actually a poor choice as an exemplar for the design argument" (Arnold). Bananas have been specifically bred and selected over thousands of years—not by God, but by man—to arrive in their current configuration. As a consequence of this, they have no seeds, consistent/pleasing color and flavor, and have been carefully selected for commercial viability (they must survive a lengthy import, age well, etc.). If Comfort had been eating the banana God designed, he would have cracked his tooth on a seed.

Bananas are an interesting choice for a completely different reason as well: commercial bananas lack genetic diversity because they are clones. One of the side effects of making commercial bananas seedless is they can no longer sexually reproduce. Because of this, commercial banana strains have no ability to adapt to their environment. Entire strains of banana can be made commercially obsolete by a single aggressive fungi or bacterial disease. This happened in the 1960s; Americans used to consume a commercial variety of banana called the Gros Michel (also a clone) but a fungus decimated the entire population. The banana industry was forced to pick another strain—this one called the Cavendish—which is now being threatened by a similar fungus and faces commercial disaster (Koeppel).

Because all commercial bananas are clones, they cannot participate in one of the primary mechanisms by which evolutionary change occurs: natural selection. Favorable hereditary traits (e.g. resistance to some aggressive pathogen) are not passed on because no sexual reproduction occurs. This makes it almost impossible for commercial bananas to adapt to new threats.

A banana is not an atheist's worst nightmare; to the contrary, it is a superb argument in favor of modern evolutionary theory. First, without natural selection, the banana is defenseless against quickly adapting pathogens. Second, in producing a strain of banana that is wholly susceptible to disease, we have created the opportunity for pathogens to exploit this vulnerability via the same evolutionary mechanisms that have been crippled in the banana. In this case, the "intelligent designer" turns out to be us, although the title is a misnomer; no "intelligent" designer would create an organism that is completely incapable of defending itself against a potential threat vector.

Works Cited

Arnold, Stevan J. "Intelligent Design and Evolutionary Biology: When Worlds Collide." 2 May 2005. 17 May 2008 <http://oregonstate.edu/~arnoldst/index_files/Worlds%20Collide.ppt>.

Becker, Anne. TV's Religious Revival: Broadcasting & Cable. 25 4 2005. 17 May 2008 <http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA527238.html?display=News&referral=SUPP>.

Conner, Steve. National Geographic News. 27 July 2001. 17 May 2008 <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/07/0726_wirebanana.html>.

Koeppel, Dan. Can This Fruit Be Saved? 22 June 2005. 17 May 2008 <http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-06/can-fruit-be-saved>.

The Way of the Master - The Beauty of a Broken Spirit--Atheism. Perf. Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. 2005.

The Way of the Master. The Way of the Master. 17 May 2008 <http://www.wayofthemaster.com/>.

Trinity Broadcasting Network. TBN - Trinity Broadcasting Network. 17 May 2008 <http://tbn.org/>.