[Iarwain]

I would have to disagree with you, Osse, when you say that Tolkien kept an "open mind" to other faiths. I remember reading in numerous sources that Tolkien felt that Protestant churches were incomplete copies of what he considered to be true Christianity (Roman Catholicism). When C.S. Lewis converted from an Atheist to an Anglican, Tolkien was unhappy. He did not simply rejoyce because Lewis had taken an intrest in God, rather, he was displeased because Lewis took an intrest in God through the wrong church. To take advantage of a common post-modern doctrine (which I strongly disagree with), look at it this way.

"All roads lead to God, what is important is not that a person takes your road, but that they find any road and pursue it." In Tolkien's opinion, this would be untrue, because if all roads lead to God, then what is wrong with the Anglican road, as opposed to the Roman Catholic road? Tolkien saw the path of Catholicism as the right road, and while I don't know about his convictions on heaven, we can at least say that he believed the other roads wouldn't get you as far (if they got you there at all). I think that we must be careful about projecting popular modern ideas on life onto historical figures, and calling it the truth to make them seem better in our minds. We can, for example, say that Robert E. Lee believed in rights for slaves, but that wouldn't make it true. However, that doesn't make him any worse of a general from a Historical prospective either, does it?

Back on subject. I think that Saucepan's idea is sound, but I also think that there is another way of looking at it. Let me begin with a fact, undeniably true: there is only one way that things will happen, and only one way that things have happened. The only way that this could be untrue would be if Middle-Earth (n.b.: when I say Middle-Earth, I mean to include the entire reality of Tolkien's created world.) would be if there were multiple realities converging onto one plain of existence (a most irrational thought), but I won't explore that idea. Therefore, since everything has happened in one way, and in the end everything will happen in one way, the immediate now is the only thing that can be changed. Right now, infinite moments and opportunities are slipping by as I write this post. I could run outside and sprint a mile, or smash a window, or plant a garden, insead of this, but I wouldn't. The truth is that for myself, I cannot imagine right now actually doing anything other than write this post. That might change, of course, if I heard a loud noise and the earth shook, or an elderly person came and asked me to help them carry bags of soil. So, in this immediate possibility, things can affect my choices and cause me to change from a path that I might otherwise have taken, but those things are all results of past events that are also effects, and can be traced back and back endlessly. For example, a meteor hits the earth after it is pulled in by the earth’s gravity, after a comet (theoretically) hits Mars, after it is drawn in by the Sun’s gravity, after it flies light years through space after it breaks off a planet that was thrown into space after it’s star exploded in a supernova, etc., etc. So, let’s jump to the future, perhaps a day from now, when I’m looking back at my actions. They have led me to where I am tomorrow, they have not taken me anywhere else, and they could not have taken me anywhere else unless I acted differently, which I wouldn’t have because my psychological build at the time led me to act as I did. So, I did have a choice, but (forgive the redundancy) I could only have possibly chosen what I chose. This is not to say that there are no points at which my choices (or anyone else’s) are free from instinctive, psychological, or physical limitations, but even with those choices, the past makes them the only way. Allow me to summarize: We are governed for the most part by the past; we are led by the choices that have been made to make the choices that will be made. It all brings us back to the start of the choice: with Eru. I might be able to continue, but at the moment my mind has gone philosophically dead, so if anyone else would like to continue, that would be welcome, otherwise I’ll continue later.

Iarwain

P.S. Perhaps this is all nonsense. Please refute me if you'd like, all I ask is a rational why. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]