Fantasy Morality

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Galadriel

Zil pretty much said it all.

About the "views" on God: it doesn't matter what we believe in. What Tolkien believed in is what you're really looking at, and we don't know for sure (although we can guess).

Ye-es– but, in far as M-e "is" the real world, it's meant to be taking place in an (unspecified) pre-Christian era. This is quite an important point– however it applies to the entire Legendarium, not just CoH, and may explain why, for my money, there is remakably little direct intervention by Eru in any of the stories, barring of course the Akallabêth– which is arguably the real odd one out on tumhalad's terms.

On that note– look, I have tried to keep out of this latest round of tumhalad vs the world, but I'm just going to make a general comment here:

The basic problem, I think, tumhalad, is that your case rests on a set of assumptions (bolstered up with a few extra "rules" you've thrown in on the way) that apparently are so self-evident to you that you've never really felt any need to prove them. The result has been a rather depressing amount of circularity, both in the argument itself ("CoH is different in a metaphysical sense because its metaphysics are different"), and in the discussion, which just keeps looping back to the start. I mean, by this stage it's practically become a standard procedure: you make your assertion, other people dispute it, there's a bit of back-and-forth... and then you make the same assertion again.

I mean, look, of course you're entitled to your own views– but clearly you want to promote them to others as well. This is what, the third thread you've started on the same subject? The fourth? Okay, well, it should be clear now that, no matter how compelling you find your arguments, other people aren't "getting" them, and it doesn't seem they're going to "get" them in future. Isn't it about time you either agreed to disagree, or else tried a different tack?

If this sounds harsh, I'm sorry. It really is not my intention to pick on you this time.

EDIT:X'd with alatar.

[alatar]

Note that I'm not taking 'sides,' as no one is quite on my side...