Questions of morality related to scientific advancement often arise from concerns that science has the potential to disrupt nature or that human scientists will play god and bring about dire consequences. There are also major oppositions to various scientific endeavors spearheaded by religious belief. The novel explores the conflict between tradition and progress via discussions of human and spider religious opposition, the potentially destructive effects of scientific advancement, and the positive potential of cultural and scientific progress.

In the novel’s beginning, Avrana Kern is directly opposed to the NUNS on Earth, and that opposition is the precipitating factor in the establishment of the Green Planet. When the saboteur blows up the ship as an attempt to destroy the progress Kern is seeking, Kern’s reaction to the NUNS is to reflect, “If they had their way, we’d all end up back in the caves. Back in the trees. The whole point of civilization is that we exceed the limits of nature” (4). She believes that humanity’s only possible form of progress is to “exceed nature” rather than to discover or honor nature. This arrogant stance ironically leads Kern herself to become the religious factor that stalls progress for the spider society.