The Baptist Church
In the novel, Lauren’s father is the preacher of the community’s church. Most of the adults in the neighborhood believe that everything is within God’s plan, and the country will return to its former stability. Religion is used as a source of hope, but this set of beliefs gives people a false sense of security and breeds inaction. Reverend Olamina’s strategy is to educate people, but not scare them.
Earthseed
The younger generation does not have much faith in God to restore stability to the United States, therefore many of them have given up on religion. However, Lauren knows that religion is a powerful way to educate people and gain a following. She creates an ideology of her own called “Earthseed,” where God is the abstract concept of change, and is shaped by human action. The ultimate goal of Earthseed is for humankind to settle on another planet, which becomes the equivalent of Heaven in her religion.
The Importance of Earthseed
There is a clear contrast between the religion of the older generation, which represents stability and security, versus the religion of the new generation that embraces change and action (Kent, 2022). A philosophy of life that learns to work with change, whether it is for the better or worse, will have much more resilience in the face of climate disasters or increasing socioeconomic divides. People can feel more hopeful about their situation when they feel like they have agency and the ability to shape the outcome.
Earthseed also combats traditional religious environmentalism and transcendentalism. Lauren never argues that they should use nature to get closer to God, nor does she believe that God has an influence on their environment.
R.W. Emerson argues in his book Nature that the environment exists to benefit society with its resources. He also states that nature is below the spiritual, and one must look past the material to the Divine. Lauren uses the idea of God to preach about the necessity of change, but she preaches adaptability rather than control over the environment. She thinks much more pratically about using the resources around them to survive and to one day reach their destiny of “[taking] root among the stars.”