Yeah, all those books with good guys and bad guys, they must totally be related to the Bible.

JR Tolkien was a HUGE Christian, there are tons of symbols, allusions, and allegories to the religion in both LOTR and the Hobbit.

The ring is symbolic of temptation and evil, orcs, who used to be elves and were corrupted are fallen angels, elves are angels with their eternal life, magic, and wisdom, Valinor is heaven, etc etc

Or, it could just be elves and orcs and hobbits and evil lords and wizards. And if it is a symbolism, at least they actually did something; nothing even progresses in the bible, it's like a whiny diary that involves lots of rape and mass genocides.

Tolkien's devout Catholic faith was a significant factor in the conversion of C. S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity, although Tolkien was dismayed that Lewis chose to join the Church of England.[95]

And I'm absolutely positive you haven't read the Bible, besides looking up "contradictory Bible quotes" to impress all your friends in the 5th grade.

And reading the rest is really all that impressive?

Well, considering it's a staple of Western society, which you are almost certainly a part of, yes.

Books of the Bible and philosophies based on them, such as those of Thomas Aquinas and Augustine are incredibly thought provoking and used in pretty much every college level philosophy-class

It's not just "Hurrrr god iz reel nd every1 who disagrrees iz a retart hurr", and most Christians know it is mostly allegorical besides the multiple censuses and historically accurate events that they use religion to describe.

I'd rather not argue any further, but the interpretation and outright clarity of what has been in that belief system has brought more violence than it ever has good. If you need a fairy tale book to guide your thoughts of right and wrong instead of your own humanity, that says you can't think for yourself. Your defending one of the most zealous beliefs in history, just because people of society throughout history who have made achievements have been apart of it, doesn't mean ones who done things in the name of it have been on good grounds. It's a sick religion, don't try and justify everything about it.

There are no wars of religion, only wars for power under the guise of religion, if the Crusades were truly about religion, they would not have wasted valuable time or men conquering all of Northern Africa if they could have just gone through Europe. The Inquisition was to ensure the power of the monarchy of Spain, even the Salem witch trials was to ensure order.

If you want to use that logic, I could say that Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot all wanted to eliminate religion, which they said they did. By that logic atheism is far more murderous than Christianity, but looking at it from a relativistic and realistic point of view, it is not religion that causes war or violence, it is people.

Let's just cut the argument here. I'd go on, but I don't want to keep coming back to this page.

i actually agree with anon.



what the fuck is going on?