[Raynor]

I expect it from an author.

Then again, you are putting all authors into one pot, regardless of their opinions. This expectation is uncalled for, imo.

LotR is not a religious work.

Again, ignoring myths as a path to spirituality.

It is, first & foremost, as Tolkien stated in the Foreword to LotR, an 'entertainment'.

Could you give that specific quote??

The point is that Eru is both transcendent (in which aspect he cannot be judged) & immanent (in which aspect he can).

But Eru is nont immanent, he does not inhabit any part of creation, an idea stated repeatedly by Tolkien. So your argument is void in that direction.

I choose to believe that Tolkien was only referring to Eru - because if he really believed that it would only confirm to me that he was failing to seperate the primary & secondary worlds in his own mind

I don't see the logical connection between writting something about God in a fictional setting and inability to differentiate between one's fiction and (perceived) reality.

If God is a transcendent mystery then Tolkien would have inevitably had a limited perception of him, & one can question the extent to which he was correct, but that is a very different thing to considering them 'the same thing'.

How can we conceive two different transcendent realities?? What differentiates them, if at their core both are, well, transcendent?

Or with Joseph Stalin who said: "One death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic. "

The problem with this quote is that it says nothing of the standing of those who died.

I take it he 'destroyed the village in order to save it'?

That is what it seemed; part of Sauron's loss of power is that he spent a great part of it on corrupting Numenor. This is the only possible exit out of that hell; as Tolkien stated, there are certain encounters with evil that cannot be won by mere humans without supplication to God.

I think it should also be pointed up that not all the Faithful survived the devastation of Numenor

And you say that, because?

Originally Posted by Akallabeth

But whether or no it were that Amandil came indeed to Valinor and Manwe hearkened to his prayer, by grace of the Valar Elendil and his sons and their people were spared from the ruin of that day.