[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Huh, you people have certainly been busy. I will just remark one thing, rather regarding the "generic methodology" used on this thread (which I think basically everyone agrees on, only somehow I think there was a seed of danger of people misunderstanding each other):

The question is (Huneisoron clarified it pretty well just above, I'd say) what were Tolkien's views of creation/evolution, then that's pretty simple and clear topic and let's stick to that.

I absolutely agree with Morth's contribution regarding the various influences, but I think it does not actually have anything to do with the question posed. The fact whether Tolkien used myths from here or there as inspiration for his Legendarium says nothing about his personal beliefs regarding the real-world age of the Earth etc.

Funnily enough, I think what Morth said was a good response to what R.J.J. wrote AFTER Morth's post, in his post about the Christian influences. As far as I am concerned, it looks to me like these posts should have been posted in reverse order. Then they would both make sense. Otherwise, what R.J.J. said is as much off-topic as Morth's. I mean, it may be enlightening for someone who doesn't know about Tolkien's background that much and so on, but it really doesn't also contribute to the question about Tolkien's stance on the evolution etc. question.

And most of all, we are talking about Tolkien's, let's say, scientific belief, right? We are not talking about his faith or anything. He was a Catholic, we know that, that could give us some generic area to operate in. But the basic idea is to try to reconstruct what he was thinking based on letters and other remarks. (And I think you folks have pretty much accomplished that.) Am I right?

All in all, I would 100% back up Huneisoron's opening disclaimer above as being the standard for this discussion, as well as moving this topic into a different sub-forum. Any related, but different discussions can have their own thread, if it came to that.