Fantasy Morality

[tumhalad2]

Originally Posted by alatar

Maybe. I would say 'yes,' 'yes, and 'possibly,' as I'm not exactly sure whose benevolence we are discussing.

The only reason for my raising this whole point about "god" was that the writer in the original essay asks the question of how Turin can suffer in a universe that supposedly governed by a benevolent god.

I have, along with the essay writer, assumed that Tolkien's Eru possesses characteristics that are ascribed to the Xtian god by most theologians today - that is, omnibenevolence, omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence.

I then argued that if this were the case, there are certain logical contradictions inherent in that conception that would apply to Eru. Philosophers like Victor Stenger have made similar arguments about this notion of god in our world. Another elucidation of it can be found here: The Omniscience of God

So if Eru doesn't actually possess any or some of these attributes, (for example, he is not totally omnibenevolent) certain questions are raised about Tolkien's mythos, let alone Tolkien's personal beliefs.

Originally Posted by alatar

Understood. What I think may be an issue is that two Christians, rubbing shoulders for 50 years in the same church may not have the same conception of god. We can take some good guesses about what the Professor thought, but I suspect even his writings, as even they *really* don't depict with a 100% certainty what was in his head - there's always some loss in the translation.

Oh I agree, but given that Tolkien himself claimed that Eru was the Xtian god
(in one of the letters, I'll have to find it) I'm just assuming that it was the theologically understood "philosophical" version.