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pandora · 12-02-2003, 08:59 AM

There is no way in which you could really determine that Tolkien was an evolutionist, a creationist, an athiest or a Christian from his ME material. The most you could say would be that he shared what might be called the Christian Philosophy, but that is shared by many religions and humanists alike.

When someone sits down to invent an explanation of how a world, real or imagined, came to exist creationism appears almost automatically with the introduction of gods. This is because almost the only function of a god is creation: they make the world, storms, volcanoes, earthquakes etc. Very few mythologies manage without gods at all.

Since all religions have to be made up by someone somewhere it's not surprising that they mostly look like the ones made up by authors in modern times. Given that the person writing the book/myths is aware of the fact that they are creating the world (or the model of the world) it's probably inevitable that they transfer that very function onto one of the gods in the story, whether it's Eru, Jehova, Zeus, Ptah or whatever since that "completes the circle" and makes the world self-contained.

Interestingly, some mythologies have an evolutionary inital period before the creationism bit sets in. So, for example, Ymir condenses when warm, moist air from Muspell met the mist from Niflheim on the ice of Ginnungagap. The giants and various other non-divine beings evolve out of Ymir until the birth of Odin and his brothers who then kill Ynir and create the world from his body. A similar evolution to creation switch appears in some greek creation stories too.

Jewish mythology grew out of the Middle Kingdom mythology of Egypt during the "Aten" period and carries many of its ideas: two gods, a male and a lesser female (the female is no longer worshipped but there are still a surprising number of references to her in the modern Bible), no sub-creation gods, and the classic Sumarian creation myth of a world created in six days with a rest afterwards.

Anyway: JRRT could have written all he did simply from the point of view of someone that believed in good and evil and the corruption of power etc. so long as they also happened to be a genius.

It's only the non-ME material that tells us that Tolkien was a Christian.

12-02-2003, 08:59 AM	#26
pandora Haunting Spirit Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 60	There is no way in which you could really determine that Tolkien was an evolutionist, a creationist, an athiest or a Christian from his ME material. The most you could say would be that he shared what might be called the Christian Philosophy, but that is shared by many religions and humanists alike. When someone sits down to invent an explanation of how a world, real or imagined, came to exist creationism appears almost automatically with the introduction of gods. This is because almost the only function of a god is creation: they make the world, storms, volcanoes, earthquakes etc. Very few mythologies manage without gods at all. Since all religions have to be made up by someone somewhere it's not surprising that they mostly look like the ones made up by authors in modern times. Given that the person writing the book/myths is aware of the fact that they are creating the world (or the model of the world) it's probably inevitable that they transfer that very function onto one of the gods in the story, whether it's Eru, Jehova, Zeus, Ptah or whatever since that "completes the circle" and makes the world self-contained. Interestingly, some mythologies have an evolutionary inital period before the creationism bit sets in. So, for example, Ymir condenses when warm, moist air from Muspell met the mist from Niflheim on the ice of Ginnungagap. The giants and various other non-divine beings evolve out of Ymir until the birth of Odin and his brothers who then kill Ynir and create the world from his body. A similar evolution to creation switch appears in some greek creation stories too. Jewish mythology grew out of the Middle Kingdom mythology of Egypt during the "Aten" period and carries many of its ideas: two gods, a male and a lesser female (the female is no longer worshipped but there are still a surprising number of references to her in the modern Bible), no sub-creation gods, and the classic Sumarian creation myth of a world created in six days with a rest afterwards. Anyway: JRRT could have written all he did simply from the point of view of someone that believed in good and evil and the corruption of power etc. so long as they also happened to be a genius. It's only the non-ME material that tells us that Tolkien was a Christian.