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But taking the topic swiftly back to Tolkien - ME was of course called into existence by a monotheistic being, in proper creationist fashion. This may, or may not, endear him to fundamentalists, I don't know.
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It would, IF they would bother reading the books in the first place. Along the lines of what Iarwain talked about before, typecasting is a common strategy of people who *know* something is wrong, can't really figure out why, and so they therefore stick it in a little box and write BAD! in really big letters. Knowledge is one of the key combatants of fear. That's why, before a person picks a stance on *anything* (religion, politics, etc.) he or she should find out as much as he or she can about the opposing viewpoints. So much better, then, to combat the chosen viewpoint against the other ones.
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Why, by the way, Sophia, would the films have resulted in the banning of the books when they weren't banned before?
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(I know I'm not Sophia, btw) The movies could have one of two affects on the "fundie's" viewpoint on LOTR:
1. They could finally see the Christian *themes* (not symbolism!) in the movie's version of the written work and perhaps give it a second chance by actually *reading* it this time
or
2. Say that the themes are all well and good, but all that magic and wizards and orcs and stuff *still* isn't good for the kiddies. The "bad" outnumbers the "good."
Viewpoint #2, obviously, could be countered by actually *reading* LOTR... but if they still think that way, well, then there's no helping them. Once they read the book and gave it a fair shot, then they are intitled to their opinions. I doubt very seriously that someone who has given LOTR a fair shot would see that it is not the "magic and deamon-filled book" as they make it out to be.
EDIT: also, Eru and his Valar really had no part in the LOTR, outside of the elves mentioning Varda. Outside of the knowledge that we have of the Sil, Varda could have been the Mother Goddess. Who knows how she and the others appear to the ignorant.
-'Vana
[ May 07, 2003: Message edited by: DaughterofVana ]