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Following Roger Moore, the contemporary geologic era should rather be called “Capitalocene”, as the ecological degradation stems not from human life in general but from a very distinct system of economic production and its concurrent belief systems and lifestyles.42 Hence, a different human world and culture is possible, in which the ecology is not wrecked. In the novels, this alter- native world is represented by the God’s Gardeners, who accordingly believe in their surviving the flood as a result of their better lifestyle: “A massive die-off of the human race was impending, due to overpopulation and wickedness, but the Gardeners exempted themselves: they intended to float above the Waterless Flood, with the aid of the food they were stashing away in the hidden storeplac- es they called Ararats.”43 Apocalypticism from this point of view functions as an ordering device in an otherwise chaotic world, as it constructs a fixed mor- al compass of good and evil.44 The example in the MaddAdam Trilogy demon- strates, however, that this moral compass only pertains to a certain group and their strategies of worldmaking through storytelling and discourse. The Garden- ers live in an oral culture; in hymns, verses and sermons, they construct a belief system which is fundamentally different from the hegemonic system around them that they, in allusion to “hell”, call “the exfernal world”. With respect to the God’s Gardeners and their eco-religion, Atwood’s trilo- gy also assumes a meta-perspective by depicting in detail the process whereby Toby becomes a Gardener, which allows for a deconstructive look behind the scenes. When Toby is asked to join the Gardeners’ leadership ranks by becom- ing an “Eve”, she fears that it would be hypocritical: “‘I’m not sure I believe in all of it.’ ‘In some religions, faith precedes action,’ said Adam One. ‘In ours, action precedes faith. You’ve been acting as if you believe, dear Toby. As if – those two words are very important to us. Continue to live according to them, and belief will follow in time’.”45 Having accepted the position, Toby finds out that in spite of the Gardeners’ apparent technophobia, each of the leaders secretly owns a laptop and that Adam One sometimes deliberately “invents” certain stories to make the members believe and do what he thinks is right: “‘Forgive me, dear Toby,’ he said when the rest had gone. ‘I apologize for my excursion into fiction. I must sometimes say things that are not transparently honest. But it is for the greater good.’”46 With regard to the often comic representation of the Gardeners, and also Toby and Ren’s sometimes critically distanced narrative perspectives, Hope Jen- nings argues that the Gardeners are criticised by the novels for their “inhuman- 42 Cf. Moore 2015. 43 Atwood 2010, 47. 44 Cf. Tate 2017, 17. 45 Tate 2017, 201. 46 Tate 2017, 219. Just Popular Entertainment or Longing for a Posthuman Eden? | 43www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 31–50