Tolkien-founder of new religion?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by alatar

And note that the small 'hobbit' people that were found have a biological explanation. Something to do with minimizing energy output and lack of space.

Whoa! That's sent me off on a mad train of thought. Maybe living on an island and being isolated from Europe explains the strangeness of us British people then? Does this mean that other groups who live tightly packed on islands might suddenly 'adapt' to their environments? We could see genetic mutations in people living on Manhattan or in Hong Kong, people suddenly becoming smaller because they have less space to live in. What about The Shire and the Hobbits? Did they grow larger because they had more room after the War of the Ring?

Originally Posted by tgwbs

Now to the question at hand: could the literate and power hungry sway the illiterate and ignorant into believing in Tolkien?

Thinking about this brought to mind what happened when missionaries went to convert people living in isolated areas. Apparently in a lot of African communities native beliefs have become closely linked to Christian beliefs and this is still strongly evident today. There was recently a case where a girl had been tortured as her family believed she was a 'witch'. Reading more about this, it seems there are quite a few churches in the community which have incorporated their fear of witches and demons into their Christianity. In this unfortunate case it lead to torture. Historically, Christianity has always incorporated older beliefs as a way of getting people to convert. Just one example of evidence is that the festivals of Christmas, Easter, Harvest and All Souls are concurrent with pre-existing pagan festivals.

In many if not most cases, missionaries have been the literate and more powerful people in instances of conversion, and while the former pagans/heathens (however you wish to word it) were not necessarily ignorant, they often lacked the power that the missionaries had. In some cases conversion brought benefits to people but in others it has not, it has only exposed them to the vagaries of the wider world. Conversion has not always been carried out simply by spreading the gospel, sometimes it has been done in conjunction with bringing wonders like running water or electricity, and whether this was intentional or done through the kindness of said missionaries, it definitely had an effect in getting people to listen to the missionaries. So I would assume that the same could be done with any belief?

I have to add, it is not just missionaries who have used this tactic, so I'm not 'picking on them'. It was also used by the great explorers I admire, bringing guns to distant lands in order to gain friendship and ultimately territories for Western rulers. The difference would be that who would benefit by seeking to convert anyone to Tolkienism/Eruisn? Tolkien is popular, just as is Elvis or Star Trek, but his 'word' is not dominant, so why would anyone seek to try?

I hope that made any sense, I've a fever so I'm a bit 'eyuw' in my head right now.