As I said, I refuse to get involved in a religious debate over a work of fiction, but my veiws on the similarity between Eru and God were nicely stated by
Thenamir. That being said, I find it irrelevant.
As
Fordim clarified:
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So we once again come to this: which should govern our interpretation -- authorial intent (Tolkien intended Eru to be God, so He is), or personal response (Eru doesn't seem like God to me, so he is not).
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I come from the school of though where interpretation means to find the author's intent. My studies are governed by two rules: "The simplest interpretation is usually the best," and "Take the most literal interpretation possible." It doesn't matter what your views of God are or aren't, and it doesn't matter how accurate Tolkien was in his description. What matters is what he meant it to be. And
davem made the excellent point:
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I think its clear that Tolkien did not distinguish between Eru & God. The fact that he translated the prayers that were most significant to him into his own languages (Our Father, Ave Maria, Litany of Loreto, etc) points towards this, & many of the comments he makes in the notes to the Athrabeth confirm it.
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So, as far as this discussion is concerned, it doesn't really matter what you think about God. It matters what Tolkien thinks. It's his story, after all. He gets to write it however he wants, and we can't change his intended meaning- no matter how much we don't like it.