[Child of the 7th Age]

Davem

I was going to give you rep for that post because it is so beautifully expressed and so very true but unfortunately I couldn't.

Lalwendë - I do think this is how the confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman should be read and understood. Tolkien was speaking in a theological or even an historical sense rather than a strictly scientific or physical one. The breaking of the White Light refers to the whole sequence of events beginning with the creation and manifestation of the Secret Fire and its gradual marring and splintering down to the Third Age when the only physical fragment left to Arda was that which lay within the Phial of Galadriel. Saruman is just one of a long line of destroyers who would seek to hide the Light--in this case, manifested by his white robes-- masking it with other, less important things for his own selfish reasons.

I truly don't believe that JRRT was questioning scientific exploration in any real sense. There is too much evidence in the Legendarium that says otherwise. The Elves especially cherished the physical world of Arda and many of them spent long years trying to understand and even capture the mysteries that underlay that physical world. They didn't give the name "science" to their activities. Instead, they called these woodlore or art or craftsmenship, which others often interpreted as "magic". This strange and wondrous knowledge led the Noldor to craft objects like the Palantari that were enormously beneficial to those seeking to uphold the good. Today, we would probably call this branch of knowledge "science".

What Tolkien objected to was not science but its abuse, especially the prostration of technology for purposes of war. With the single exception of the ruling ring, none of the objects created by Elves was inherently evil from the beginning. (In many other fantasy worlds, this is not true.) The problem came only with the use to which these objects were put. And Davem (and Flieger) have identified what goes to the core of this dilemma, at least according to Tolkien. Without an understanding of our real place in the world we will fall into error and everything we touch--science, human feelings, even natural desires to build a community or a family--will be tainted. We are servants like Gandalf. If we seek mastery like Saruman desiring a "higher" place than that due to us, we will twist science and erect an Isengard.

Thus, the Silmarils become a curse to those who argue over them and seek mastery of the world instead of the beauteous reflection of creation that they are intended to be. Yet, even here, the reader is left with hope. In the end we remember not the Silmarillion with its long recital of tragic events but the eucatastrophe of the Third Age: the fact that a tiny splinter of the Silmarils nestled within the Phial of Galadriel becomes a beacon to two Hobbits whose initial motivation was to serve. And it is this tiny spark that provides the glimmer of light in Frodo's eyes that Sam so clearly recognizes.

The scene between Gandalf and Saruman is just one skirmish in a battle that will go on till the end of Arda. As Tolkien saw it, it was a long defeat marred by tiny, temporary triumphs. At the end of time, however, the White Light that Eru created would finally be restored:

This Legendarium ends with a vision of the end of the world, its breaking and remaking, and the recovery of the Silmarilli and the "light before the Sun"-- after a final battle..... Letter 131