Imagine no religion

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Zil

As for the 'programming' aspect, I agree with the idea. Not long ago I heard a news story which said that all of us apparently had a "God-gene", something that impelled us to seek understanding of our purpose and predisposed us toward a belief in a Higher Power.

Danger, Will Robinson! I'd be very wary of bringing genetics into this - this looks to me too much of another attempt to misuse 'science' in order to bolster preconcieved beliefs or prejudices (like the Intelligent Design scam or the alleged finding of a gene for homosexuality a decade or two ago). If we think this out, the logical conclusion would have to be that atheism is a genetic defect, wouldn't it, and I don't want to go where that might lead us.

(Also note that in the post you refer to here, I was strictly talking Tolkien, and whether we need resort to divine inspiration to explain ethical standards outside Middle-earth is quite another matter.)

Originally Posted by TMT

Magic empowers the individual whereas Animism inculcates powerless enfeeblement towards social authority exercised in the name of unseen spooks.

So it would seem, working with the distinction as you defined it above (and leaving aside terminological squibbles about your use of animism, which isn't the topic here). But I'm not sure the distinction is as clear-cut as you (or Frazer) would like it to be. Take e.g. a pagan deity like Odin, who was both a patron god of shamanist magic (seiðr) and the highest god of the official religion of the time. Or what do you make of modern Wicca, which combines the practice of magic with ritual worship of the Goddess and God (and, at least in some of its most vociferous writers, strongly emphasizes empowering the individual)?

Keeping to Tolkien, can you really claim that praying to Elbereth enfeebled rather than empowered Sam at Cirith Ungol?

Finally, as an ex-Christian, I'll have to third what Zil and Formy said about word-choice and tone (if you haven't guessed it already). The wonderful thing about this forum is that it unites people coming from vastly different cultural, religious and political backgrounds through our common love for Tolkien's works - not by muddying our differences, but simply by treating each other with respect and empathy (or, as you put it in your first post here, "human brotherhood").