Herland

Van describes various religions to Ellador, and she notes that the religions all include adjusting behaviors to please one or more deities. Ellador appreciates the basis of the Christian God and Jesus, impressed by the motif of kindness, but she is appalled when she learns of the idea of “infant damnation.” She leaves abruptly and goes to a temple. When she returns, she explains that she talked to one of the wise women in the temple, who told Ellador that she does not need to believe that such a God exists or that infants have ever been sent to a hell. The woman told Ellador that ignorant individuals will “believe anything.” When Herland was first cut off from the world, they had horrible ideas in their culture, but their views changed because they do not respect and honor the past—“They knew less than we do” (81).

Ellador explains that their religion, centered on the Mother Spirit, is magnified motherhood, and they feel a strong, steady sense of loving support. They do not need to appease their mothers nor the Mother Spirit, and there is no threat of punishment, neither religious nor social. They view criminality or misbehavior like a physical ailment: “Do you punish a person for a broken leg or fever?” (82).