What ain't there and ought to be.

[Gurthang]

Beautiful post Child.

That's very interesting about Frodo being 'exceptional' and that being a reason that he felt compelled to go West. But if that is the case, and all the Hobbits on the Ring quest were 'exceptional' in this way, then it would stand to reason that Merry and Pippin would have taken the ship also. This is where the actual bearing of the Ring comes into play. Merry and Pippin might have been "looking higher" in a sense, but because they did not actively carry the One, they could still find pleasure in the Shire and the rest of Middle Earth. Frodo and Sam could not forget or put off the effects of the Ring without going across the Sundering Seas.

It's interesting that most of the Hobbits don't seem to have any religion at all, but I think this is linked to their lack of history. They don't have any story about where they came from, or who created them, and so they don't feel that they should acknowledge a higher being. And with no story of where they started, there is no desire to wonder where they are going(meaning after they die). Those two questions(where did we come from/where are we going?) are the major building blocks at the base of religion. We think about what happens before and after life, and in this find a reason to believe that there is something more significant or higher that us.