Quote:
Originally Posted by Nogrod
I'm afraid there's a blatant answer to your question and that is that the prof had no idea of those kind of things modern biology tells us
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You don't have to study modern biology to realize the importance of decay and biological recycling; the slightest interest in gardening will shove it into your face, and every human being who has ever tilled the soil has known about it from experience ever since the neolithic revolution.
You're right, of course, mentioning the Fall and primordial sin in this context. For me, as a non-Christian, the dream of a pre-Fall paradise without death (and its possible restoration after Judgment Day?) is one of the most fascinating, as well as one of the most puzzling, aspects of Christianity. Judging from his writings on Aman, I get the impression that JRRT somehow shared this dream (even though he criticized the Elves for trying to realize it within the Fallen World of Middle-Earth). On the other hand, from everything else he wrote I get the impression of somebody who had a very close, personal, emotional
and realistic (whatever that may mean) relationship with nature as we know it; and I just don't know how to fit these two aspects together (or, what is the same, I wonder how they fitted together in his mind, if he was at all conscious of the problem).