If spun candy = cotton candy, yum! No wonder I love LotR so much!
I think the very fact that Tolkien does not ask questions is a reason why his secondary world is so convincing. The "real world" does not work in allegories or symbols; questions about life, the universe, and everything are not offered, but arise as a result of living in that world. With LotR, the reader can come away with questions even though they have not been asked, and perhaps those questions have more merit because they expand the work in a sense. Instead of the author asking certain questions and offering answers (or expecting the reader to find his/her own answer), the reader can process what s/he has read and then build upon it. I think that is more important and inspiring than any question-and-answer session between a book and its reader, expecially because such a Q&A session is a one-way process. I daresay the reader could even be the questioner, and then search in the book for an answer that suits him/her -- after all, LotR is meant to be applicable rather than allegorical.
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Originally Posted by Roa
Which is ironic, because atheism is a religion in itself. I mean, it takes some serious conviction to say for certain that is no God.
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With risk of digressing into an inappropriate topic (for this forum, anyway), I'd just like to say that atheism is not a religion. It often requires faith, yes -- but faith in reason rather than a deity.