The Emblems of Religion don't belong ... or do they?

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Originally Posted by Formendacil

Are you suggesting that ceremonies and religions in OUR time and place are forced or unrealistic? Because any religion that takes itself seriously MUST consider its practises, or some portion of them, and CERTAINLY its beliefs, to be natural and unforced.

I doubt that this is what you are suggesting, but it is certainly what you came across as saying on my first reading.

Sorry for the poor choice of words. What I mean is that some writers/authors with lesser abilities at times feel the need to inject a particular something into a story for whatever reason, and so just slap it in haphazardly. In LOTR it just seems as natural for the Ithilien band to observe the Standing Silence as it is for them to eat and drink - I never felt that that scene was placed in the story so that Tolkien could make some theological point - if it were, then it was cleverly disguised.

Not to stray from the thread, but an example would be PJ's 'fireball of Saruman,' which to me seemed very out of place, out of character, forced, unnatual, etc.

Again apologies, and I will leave the discussion of religions to another forum.