peoples of ME above "religion"

[jbru119]

I guess that if I were asked whether people in ME practice religion I would have to say that they are above the "religion" that we practice today... it seems to me that Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Hobbits had all mastered their "religion"... hmmmm, how do I explain my theory?... instead of being followers of a religion, perhaps they had taken an active role in the cosmogonical? spiritual? magical?(JRRT just rolled over again) theological? world of Arda... didn't all the races have "special powers", whether it be creating "magic"(rolling again), having a special affinity with nature, blessing weapons, healing, etc... do you all get my meaning?... I guess what I'm trying to say is that in this world an exorcism is cause for a movie, but in ME an exorcism is a "walk in the park" everyday occurence... praying for a loved one that has cancer is an all to common practice on Earth today, but in ME instead of just praying and leaving it to God, they take the healing powers of Iluvatar into thier own hands... I think that makes my point... anyway... that's just my $.02 worth...

BTW, did anyone else notice "the cross" in the R/B Hobbit movie?, are there other Xtian images in the movie?

[Feanorian]

Well...the men of Numenor had temples for Eru...later for Morogoth. The men of the east worshipped both Morogoth and Sauron in their seperate reigns of power...but I suppose that was forced worship.

they take the healing powers of Iluvatar into thier own hands...

I dont see the logic in this statement. We have doctors. We take the healing powers into our own hands just as much if not more then they did in M-E. I think Middle Earth was more spiritual...but that was the whole point. Elves lived with the gods..basically(granted not Eru). How much closer can you get on earth?