The Year of The Flood

The Year of The Flood describes this uneasy relationship between science and religion. The God’s Gardeners are an eccentric, eco-friendly, seemingly religiously oriented group that may be the future of religion. The Gardeners respect science and don’t believe the creation story should be taken literally, a belief that’s not very common in this seemingly Christian group. In Atwood’s dystopian society, the Gardeners are a group that evolved as a means of survival in a society that is shaped and driven by futuristic technology. As our present day society “goes green” and ideals are shifted to finding this perfect balance between nature and humanity, it’s not too far-fetched to believe that science will soon be playing a central role in the religions of the future, maybe even to the extreme. Today there are religions that possess similarities to Gardner’s, such as the Green Bible, a bible that is printed on recycled paper, uses soy based ink, and is made of renewable cotton linen. This bible focuses on environmental issues and teachings, so that the assessment of how “good” someone is related to how good they are to the environment.