Parable of the Sower

So, the Parable of the Sower was a nice change from all the spaceship sci-fi in my mind even though the entire Destiny idea was all about going to space, it wasn’t actively happening. It read like a post apocalyptic novel. One where you’re screaming at the character’s not to do the stupid thing. Except Lauren is also screaming at them yet no one is listening. At least at the beginning until she gets out on her own. At which point her message is God is Change. I connect with the theme of change. Without change I would not be who I am. As a military child I moved every three years or so. All of my surroundings changed other than the people I was with. I can not stand being in the same place for very long or doing the same things. Without change there is no progress. Even bad change only provides a reason to change things for the better afterwards. 

In the case of the Parable of the Sower, the United States has gone through some pretty bad changes and the government has collapsed. Mixed race relationships are stigmatized amid attacks against religious and ethnic minorities. Now, religion. I mentioned this in a blog post a couple weeks ago, the idea of terror management theory. The idea that the knowledge of our own immortality scares us but we can live on by investing in a cultural belief system that imbues life with meaning. The idea that God is Change would give reasoning to the chaotic state of the country. It’s just in the process of change. Lauren tells the followers of Earthseed to believe in the destiny that they are going to go settle in space. Where space is a real-life heaven where they can start a new life. This is all change, and referring back to terror management theory it gives the people a reason to continue on.