I am very late in returning to this discussion, and do not, at this time, have the time to reply at length about some of the points I made earlier and which others took up. Partially I was, as Mr. Underhill suggested, playing the scamp to draw others into the discussion, but I do have a serious point to make about the kind of moral universe in LOTR.
For now, however, I wish to protest this statement strongly and emphatically:
Quote:
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Some sort of religious belief is the only thing that would compel everyone, without exception, to behave morally.
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1. It is morally wrong to coerce or compel moral behaviour. Such behaviour would not, in fact, reflect a moral understanding but simply bullied fear.
2. The list is long and horrifyingly brutal of immoral behaviour which has been inspired by, supported by or otherwise condoned by religious belief.
A few quick examples include the following:
--the witch hunts of medieval Europe
--9/11
--the Protestant/Catholic terrorism in Northern Ireland
--the atrocities committed by both Protestants and Catholics after the Protestant Reformation in Europe
--Nazi persecution of Jews, gypsies, Slavs in WWII
3. I have, in my own personal experience, seen Atheists behave with more courtesy, decency respect for human life and with less ambitious greed to dominate other people than those who claim religious belief.
4. Large, grand sounding abstractions such as "moral behaviour" and "immoralitty" need to be closely and carefully defined in any discussion. I think it would be wiser to try to look at Tolien's work and attempt to discuss what he propounds as moral behaviour in LOTR than to simply assume that we all mean the same thing when we talk about moral or immoral behaviour.
My apologies for ranting with strength and feeling here, but such emphatic statements as the above quotation shows frighten me profoundly.
In my reading of history and of my personal experience, whenever we make such all inclusive statements, we close our eyes and ears to those who disagree with us, to thoughtful consideration of what precisely we mean. The moment anyone says, "Only I have the key to correct behaviour" is the moment when the most immoral actions become likely. Not that I am accusing the writer of immoral actions, but that that frame of mind leads to closed minds.
Humbly submitted,
Bęthberry