What a marvelous idea Lauren Olamina had in inventing her own religion. After all, most church leaders swear by their “God” that only their church have the absolute TRUTH. But in order to get the benefits and blessings that the real God provide to this out of the ordinary church, people must be members of the only true church by baptizing and promising ten percent of their salary. After all, salvation is not free.
Despite her young age, Lauren does not buy all that nonsense. Even more important, her own father is a preacher and it seems that they have a great relationship. Not only they share their birthday on the same day and that the daughter is 15 and the father 55, but also they are both spiritual leaders in their own way. She definitely exhibits the qualities of a great leader who take in consideration other people’s interests and necessities and not just her own interests. If she were a politician she would be the only one that Plato once described as an ideal government leader. But there is not such a thing in planet earth and our heroine knows that.
I could see that people in this novel who embrace her religion would have a better chance of survival. (Or may be not). Laureen has an uncommon compassion for other human beings, but at the same time she could be ruthless in the sense that she speaks up her mind without caring if she hurt other people’s feelings. For instance, when she refers to the Secretary of Astronautics as an “Idiot”. She speaks the brutal truth disregarding people’s sentimentality. In reality only good friends tell the ugly truth to their friends. Hence, Earthseed have a great potential to become the greatest religion on hearth where the only incentive to its main leader is compassion and truth and not MONEY.
There are two main points of your post that I want to address, so please cut the vagueness and elaborate your argument if possible. To paraphrase, you’re saying that Earthseed is a religion with a leader whose incentive is “compassion and truth”- while on the other hand, the “ordinary church” (I take it you’re referring to Christianity since you mentioned baptizing) is only concerned with money.
The first point regards Lauren’s overall good and noble characteristics. I found this slightly distraught; the post focused entirely on the leader, and was essentially nothing about Earthseed but everything about Lauren and why the “ordinary church” basically sucks compared to her. Yes, it’s very clear that Lauren has well-established herself as an individual and is very capable of leading a group- but so did Hitler. Is the legitimacy of a religion, or any sort of organization, really completely based on the traits of its leader?
Next addressing your other main point. It’s a pretty broad statement to claim that “the ordinary church” is only concerned about money, unlike Earthseed’s concerns and intentions toward “compassion and truth”- by the way, what is this truth? Because Earthseed’s truth sounds like self-contentment and life on Mars, but if it’s deeper than that, please share.
Anyway, I’m not claiming that all churches are faultless and its leaders wouldn’t dare to preach for money, because there are obviously exceptions. Mega-churches with in-the-closet, drug-abusive pastors who purely preach for drug and sex money aren’t the only churches in the world. What about the spiritually booming yet destitute underground churches in China, Russia, and Bangladesh, among numerous other countries? There is also no existing doctrine that requires tithing- not even one word in the New Testament implying that Christians have to give 10% of their earnings to the church.
This next part is not really arguing with your entry. In fact, I agree that it was good for Lauren to invent her own religion (whatever helps her cope), but I found Lauren’s made-up religion itself hilarious and childish. Unlike many of today’s religions and philosophies, Earthseed doesn’t even bother with self-improvement. Beneath the shameless contradictions and flowery and cheesy phrases, its core is purely about “ME”:
“[Earthseed’s] God isn’t good or evil, doesn’t favor you or hate you, and yet God is better partnered than fought” (221).
If God isn’t good or evil and is actually indifferent to mankind, He’ll do His thing and “be Change” regardless of whether it kills or benefits anyone. Sounds like a god to putty and make him convenient to your coping needs.
When Travis retorts, “Your God doesn’t care about you at all,” Lauren responds, “All the more reason to care about myself and others” (221).
With Earthseed/Lauren, MAN prevails. It’s all about disowning all ideas of a god and finding excuses to solely care about yourself. When Lauren claims that “God is Change,” she’s actually turning God into a convenient idea that people can squash into a box and open whenever they feel like it, ultimately giving people control over God himself.
Change is something that is often out of our control, but Earthseed allows followers to believe they have control over even the uncontrollable changes, which to them is ultimately God.
Man’s pride: 1
Logic: 0
Furthermore, the ending purpose of Earthseed is to take civilization to space. (el oh el)
“I know it won’t be possible for a long time… After all, my heaven really exists, and you don’t have to die to reach it” (222).
This screams “control”. The afterlife is intimidating to imagine and it can’t be scientifically proved. So rather than focusing on the intangible, Earthseed points toward life on… Mars. Its underlying purpose is to try and somehow escape Man’s destiny (or in the Church’s wording, God’s plans), say “F YOU” to God, and haul mankind to outer space.
From how I view it, Earthseed serves one purpose, and that is to mentally comfort Lauren because the world is total hell and she never had faith to find that type of comfort in her father’s god. It’s a logically-based religion that masturbates the Self and minimizes God, so it will unsurprisingly appeal to those who never believed in a Deity- especially after enduring and continuing to endure tragedy on a regular basis.