Sunspots 900

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

The Arts: A Christianity Today writer on Tolkien's world, and ours.

Christianity: A Christianity Today writer on how corporate worship may bond us together in ways we don't realize.

Christianity Today has posted links to several articles on the late Mickail Gorbachev.

Politics:  A Conversation writer says that Iran is winning the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Gizmodo notes that former President Trump has incriminated himself on his own social media platform.

Science: Gizmodo on 7 animals that use tools.

A web page that tells us that fruit flies have been important in Nobel-prize-winning research.

A writer for The Conversation points out that over half of human fertilized eggs die before the woman knows that she is pregnant, but that laws protecting human embryos don't take this into account.

Another writer for The Conversation discusses what we know about fish sleep.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight tells us which of the big universities are football schools, and which are basketball schools.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

Musing about The Rings of Power, based on J. R. R. Tolkien's works

The Rings of Power, based on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, is to be available for streaming on Amazon Prime in a couple of weeks. I have not seen it. I have heard that Amazon has spent a billion dollars or so on the series.

I have read much of Tolkien's work. I have appreciated it. My report on the last book in the Lord of the Rings is here. There are links, in that post, to my musings on more of Tolkien's work.

Tolkien had a large influence on later writers, for example, Elizabeth Moon. The films based on his books were among the most popular of all time.

Tolkien was a Christian. He worshiped regularly as a Catholic. His friendship with C. S. Lewis was one aspect of the conversion of Lewis, one of the most influential Christians of the 20th Century. But some aspects of his work are troubling. There are many gods, for one thing. Evil is often associated with blackness, and good with white. Women are mostly of secondary importance. (There are exceptions, such as Galadriel.)

Was Tolkien a Christian novelist? See here. I don't expect that The Rings of Power, any more than Tolkien's other work, will be preachy, at all. I expect that there will be important moral choices in The Rings of Power. Will there be a Christ-figure, submission to a good Creator, hope in a supernatural being, and other aspects of a Christian world view? I hope so. Will pride, like that of Fëanor, be punished? Punishment for pride is perhaps the main theme of Tolkien's work.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 872

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

The Arts: The Federalist claims, with evidence, that Amazon's production of early times, in Tolkien's vision, will be a disaster, at least in the sense of adhering to Tolkien's ideas.

Food: Senegalese farmers are learning to encourage growth of a plant formerly treated as a weed.

Health: The Scientist says that COVID is transmitted by tiny particles in the air, not by large drops.

NPR says that Neil Cavuto, a Fox News host, thanks vaccination, without which he says that he wouldn't be alive. Cavuto earlier received some death threats for advocating vaccination.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a study of DNA found in ocean depths. Most of it is from previously unknown species. Such organisms play an important part in the Carbon cycle of the earth.

Gizmodo also reports that the Webb telescope is working perfectly, so far.

NPR reports on a pack of killer whales who successfully (for them) killed a blue whale.

Gizmodo reports that we may not be prepared for accidental contamination of earth, or some other planet.

The Scientist reports that mosquitoes can remember the smells of insecticides.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight gives us an in-depth look at NBA refereeing.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 826

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: J.  R. R. Tolkien was not only a writer, he was an artist.

Computing: Relevant lets us know whether we've become an internet troll.

Science: Gizmodo reports on research that indicates that octopi may dream.

Gizmodo reports on how easy it is to make people believe they remember something that never happened.

The Scientist reports on a gene transfer from a plant to an insect. It happened a long time ago.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight discusses the lack of black coaches in major college men's basketball.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 817

 Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: Speculative Faith has an article on Tolkien and fighting evil.

Christianity: (and politics) Christianity Today considers prophecies that Trump would win the 2020 election.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware points us to a PDF reader that allows some editing, etc.

Environment: Gizmodo says that President Biden's environmental plans don't deal with the accumulation of plastic.

Gizmodo also reports that lots of gray whales are dying, perhaps from lack of food.

Politics: (and computing) Gizmodo has a piece, with sample posts, on how QAnon followers are taking the Biden inauguration.

Relevant reports that gun violence went up in 2020.

Science: Gizmodo reports that quieter Velcro has been produced.

Gizmodo also reports on the discovery of large holes made by prehistoric carnivorous worms.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight on how great recently deceased Henry Aaron was.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 720

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: Listverse describes stories that probably influenced J. R. R. Tolkien's writing.

Christianity: Not a surprise. Relevant reports on a study that shows that larger Protestant churches are more likely to be growing than small ones.


Computing: NPR reports that electronic medical record-keeping hasn't lived up to its promise, and explains why.

Finance: Catherine Rampell reacts to the Trump administration's budget.

Health: NPR reports that Alzheimer's is not the only form of dementia. There are other common forms, all bad, but treatment for some of the effects may be possible, provided the actual form of dementia is known.

Politics: A USA Today columnist is not happy with the President, but explains why he might win in 2020.

Michael Gerson explains why Trump's base is loyal. It isn't pretty.

FiveThirtyEight analyzes the various lawsuits against the President, and his businesses, especially a suit involving the emoluments clause of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is going to be busy, apparently.


Science: Listverse tells us a lot of interesting facts about ice.

Gizmodo reports on calculations that say that Mercury is closer to the earth than Venus is.

Gizmodo also reports on an enormous geological event that we didn't feel, but was detected by seismographs all over the world.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.
Thanks for looking!

Some important uses of the number twelve

 

Some important uses of the number twelve

This is the last of a series, attempting to show some of the most important uses of the numbers two through twelve (except eleven) in our culture. It is obvious that twelve has been, and is, culturally important. I did not include the twelve tribes of Israel, but they weren't exactly twelve -- Jacob had twelve sons, but the tribe of Levi was not included, for some purposes, in national matters, and Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, each founded a tribe. Further, Manasseh's offspring ended up living in two areas, one on each side of the Jordan River.

Thanks for looking!

Some important uses of the number nine

 

Some important uses of the number nine.

Part of a series. Previous posts have been for the numbers two through eight, and, God willing, there will be two more posts, for ten and twelve. The uses of nine in this poster seem straightforward enough without my commentary.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 501

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: Christopher Tolkien, son of J. R. R. Tolkien, is not happy with the movies made by Peter Jackson.


Christianity: Speculative Faith sticks up for Santa, partly due to Father Christmas in The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe.

Computing: FiveThirtyEight, a news web site that majors on statistics, especially in sports, but also in other subjects, like politics. For example, there's an article that says that the conventional wisdom on oil prices has almost always been wrong. You have to see it to understand it.
 
Humor: (Sort of) Wired reports that NASA tells us that we can see the added illumination caused by Christmas lights from space.
 
Science:  National Public Radio reports on why Arctic ice is melting so rapidly. Wired also reports on this subject.
Wired shows us what must be the most bizarre-looking spider in the world, and describes it.

Image source (public domain)

Elfhunter, by C. S. Marks

I recently read Elfhunter, by C. S. Marks. It's a lot like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

How is this book like Tolkien? Here are some of the ways. It's a well-crafted book of sword and sorcery fantasy, set in an earth-like world, or maybe even on earth, in temperate deciduous forest, with mountains, rivers and lakes. There are elves, living in isolated kingdoms. These elves are potentially immortal, and there is some sort of realm where they go if they are killed in battle, or just decide to die. They can marry humans, but usually don't, and, if they do, they know that they the human will die, leaving the elf to grieve on, and they know that they won't be re-united after death. There are dwarves who live in underground kingdoms. Dwarves and elves don't get along very well. Tolkien barely acknowledged that there were female dwarves. Marks doesn't so much as mention them. Neither author tells us how large groups of beings living underground could get enough food. There are no orcs, or, more correctly, there are Ulcas, which are a lot like Tolkien's orcs. There are humans here, who look a lot like elves, but are not immortal, at least not in their human bodies. The only humans in the book are Rangers, who patrol the land, much like Aragorn and his compatriots in Tolkien's work. If you like Tolkien's Middle-Earth, you should like Alterra. But there are no hobbits, and most of the characters in this book are not human.

Elfhunter is well-written, and character-driven, although there is a plot, and there are settings that are important. I found almost no usage errors. (This is a second edition, and perhaps some of errors in the earlier version were eliminated.) Marks does use "'ere." rather than "ere," for some reason, and she uses it fairly often. There is a thorough glossary, which is interesting. I read the Kindle edition, which has a good working table of contents.

There are differences from Tolkien. As indicated above, there aren't many humans in this book. There's no Gandalf to come in and save the day, and even offer his life for others. The leading character is a female elf scout, Gaelen, and her best friend, and co-scout, Nelwyn, is also a female. Both of them fall in love, and those that they fall in love with, Rogond, a Ranger, and Galador, an elf from a different group of elves, are also major characters. There is a quest, but it's to destroy an evil being, Gorgon, the Elfhunter, rather than to destroy a ring of power. That's all I'll say about the plot, except to note that the book does come to an ending which is a reasonable closure, although there are suggestions that there is more to come. (There are at least two more books in the series, which I have yet to read. The third book has not yet come out in a second edition.)

There are beings known as Asari. They don't seem to be elves, or equivalent to the Istari, Tolkien's wizards, but some sort of higher immortal being. By the time of the events in the book, most of the original twelve of these have passed from the earth. At least one of them has joined with Wrothgar, the supreme evil being of Alterra.

There are quite a few scenes of violence, in battle and single attacks, and the book is not for the squeamish. There's no overt sex in the book, although some characters fall in love.

Like Tolkien, there is a struggle between good and evil, and we usually know which is which. There was no good in Tolkien's orcs, and little or none in the Ulcas. The Elfhunter is portrayed as being incapable of good, or even of appreciating beauty in nature, although there are hints that these characteristics might possibly change in the future. Here's a key quotation on that point:
He heard Gaelen muttering in her soft, clear voice: "If only you could know how beautifully the stars burn tonight… if only you could feel the longing in my heart for them… and for you." "But…I do feel it," Gorgon muttered in reply, though he was not aware of doing so. His eyes were closed now, for he concentrated entirely upon the brilliant field of silver lights that wheeled above him. "Such beautiful lights…so bright…so cold. Like cold fire burning for eternity…."

Several characters pray, although it's not clear what or who they are praying to.

I liked this book, and have begun the second volume. Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 399

Yes, you read that title correctly. I have been posting these for nearly 399 consecutive weeks. Thanks to God for the opportunity.

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science: Comet Ison is supposed to be visible late in 2013.

An amazing photo, with accompanying shots, and description, of the turbinate eyes of a male mayfly.

The Arts: (also science, politics, and probably philosophy) A web site that lists, rates, and categorizes free documentary films.

Here's information on the White Council, consisting of Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel, Elrond, and others (although only those four seem to be shown in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.)

Christianity:  He Lives on faith. Says the writer, "I'm convinced there is no adequate word in English." (To describe Abraham's faith/trust/something.)

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 397

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Humor: (Not exactly, but I don't have a "Food" category.) A small Georgia town has two fruitcake companies, according to a National Public Radio report on fruitcake, and what is in it, and what it's good for. 

Science:  A study of porcupine quills may help produce better injection needles and surgical wound repair, according to National Public Radio.

The Arts: The World has a report on languages created for works of fantasy literature. You can hear Ursula K. Le Guin, discussing her splendid The Dispossessed, and see a weather report in one of Tolkien's elvish languages.

A fine blog post, with photographs, giving a biography of J. R. R. Tolkien.

Christianity: Kerry i am took a walk with a Haitian man, with no common language, with amazing consequences.

Image source (public domain)

Veiled Rose by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

I have recently read Veiled Rose by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. The book is the second in a series. Three have been published, and the fourth is due out next month. Here's my post on the first book, Heartless. There is not a Wikipedia article on Stengl, or her books, as yet. Here is the Amazon page for the author, and she has a blog, which sometimes includes material on her books.

Heartless was the author's first novel. There was no sign of her lack of experience in that book, and there is none in this one. The characters are three-dimensional, the plot is complex, and not easily predictable, there are a multitude of settings. The second book is mostly about events that took place before those in the first book, but they are told from a different viewpoint, and this unusual time sequence should not hinder readers. Either book should be enjoyable on its own.

I will try not to give away the plot in this post, but will muse on certain aspects of Veiled Rose.

First, a little about the world of Goldstone Wood. The land (perhaps a continent, perhaps an entire world) is divided into uplands, where humans live, by lowlands, where they don't. There are bridges between the uplands, not made by mortals. Stengl has also divided the lands into the Near World, which, as I understand it, contains the uplands, the Between, which contains the lowlands, and the Far World. (See here for more on this, from Stengl.) Fairies can enter the Near World, where mortals live, but they also live in the Between, and perhaps in the Far World. These three are perhaps three different dimensions, or three different universes, co-inhabiting the same space. Stengl doesn't make a huge deal of this -- her characters, and their lives, are more important -- but the idea of living in more than one world at once definitely adds to the book. Tolkien, for one, had a similar construction, as his elves and their evil adversaries lived in two worlds at the same time. But their appearance was different, depending on which world they were seen in. In Stengl, the appearance of a character seems to be the same in whichever World they are found. (Some characters, such as dragons and fairy knights, have two different forms, but they can take these without changing Worlds.)

There are Paths, made by the fairies, within the Near World, and, probably the other Worlds. Characters who can find those Paths can move rapidly between locations.

Stengl is a bit coy about these aspects of her sub-creation: "So we know of at least three realms of existence, three levels of reality. Might there be more?" Perhaps she didn't know, herself, when she wrote that, in June of 2011. Perhaps she did, but wasn't going to tell us yet.

Second, the characters. One of the main characters in the book is Lionheart, who is also known as Leo, and by other names. He is the crown prince of one of the realms in the Near World, and young enough to play in the woods, but old enough that he is allowed to play in them without supervision. The second main character is Rosie. Lionheart meets Rosie, a girl, perhaps human, perhaps not, while playing in the wood. Rosie's origin is uncertain, and she doesn't know it herself. She always wears a veil. Lionheart doesn't know why, but doesn't really care, as she becomes his best friend. But their friendship has restrictions. She doesn't come into the castle where he lives, and he can't always go into the woods to be with her. Their friendship, by the way, seems to be quite innocent. Perhaps they are somewhat in love with each other, but perhaps not. Very few people have seen Rosie, and when people do, many of them think she is some sort of monster. She can use the Paths, at least the ones in her area, and take Lionheart on them.

Third, evil beings. One type of evil beings is the dragons. The dragons are like dragons in many other books -- they can send fire out of their mouths, they can fly, they are intelligent and can speak, they can trap unwary humans who look into their eyes, or listen to them too willingly. But, like at least one of the dragons of Ursula Le Guin's Tehanu, they can exist in human form or dragon form.

There is some other sort of evil being, perhaps also a dragon, in the books. There are at least two of these, who have the power to tempt by speaking directly to the mind of mortals. The two are in some sort of competition. The theology, or whatever it should be called, of the Goldstone Wood books is complex, and much of it is not merely an imaginary replication of Christian theology, or any other kind that I am aware of. I do believe, as I indicated in the post on the previous work, that the Goldstone Wood books are written with a Christian world-view, but that the fact that it's only a world-view, not the message of the books, is a plus, as I see it.

Fourth, I will say this about the plot. Rosie and Lionheart do not get married in this book. There are other characters, one of them named Daylily, who has decided to do what her father wants her to, and get Lionheart to marry her. He doesn't do that, either. Daylily is a complex character, and a strong one, and there are things that she does that I didn't expect.

More could be said, but I'll stop. I will confess that I have already read the third book in the series. In fact, I've read all three books twice.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 348

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science: Fox News reports that hybrid sharks have been found near Australia, and briefly discusses the implications.

NPR reports that a parasitic fly may be responsible for much of the die-off in bees in recent years.

The Arts: Rebecca Luella Miller, of the Speculative Faith blog, concludes (I think) a series about J. R. R. Tolkien's Christianity.

Image source (public domain)

Thirty Days of Gratitude

I am a Facebook member, and, as such, decided to post about something I'm grateful for, each day. Here is the result, or most of it:

4. I'm thankful for Silicon atoms. They have an amazing ability to hook up with other atoms to form large entities. Without Silicon atoms, and the things they combine with, glass, most rocks, and the semiconductors needed in modern electronics would not be possible.

5. I'm thankful for the tilt of the earth's axis, that makes seasons possible.

7. I'm thankful that I exist. I guess my dad produced a billion or more sperm over his lifetime, and my mother was carrying at least a few hundred eggs when she reached reproductive age, and, presumably, if that one egg and that one sperm hadn't gotten together, I wouldn't be here.

8. I'm thankful to live in a country with a (mostly) functioning democracy. When elections are lost in some countries, the losers get out the guns, or riot. Sometimes the army steps in to remove those in power. These things have never happened here.

9. I'm thankful for a praying wife, and a God who answers her prayers. (Not always with "yes," of course!)

10. I'm thankful that air molecules (and other gases, liquids, and even solids) can be compressed, so that there can be pressure differences, propagated from a source of vibration. In other words, I'm grateful for sound, whether it be the crash of something falling on the floor, or the angels singing to the shepherds. I'm also grateful that I can hear it.

11. I'm thankful for electromagnetic radiation. (This includes light, X-rays, radio waves, and a lot of other forms of energy.) Without it, I couldn't see this screen. Without it, my laptop wouldn't be connected to the Internet right now. Without it, the earth would be a lifeless frozen ball.

12. I'm thankful for my skeleton. Without it, I'd be a blob of meat on the ground, without easy means of movement, of my whole body or my arms -- rather like a jelly fish out of water. My skeleton also protects my brain and my eyes. It makes a good place to attach my muscles. It has marrow which makes some kinds of blood cells.

13. I'm grateful for plant pigments. Most higher plants have chlorophyll, which is a green pigment. Many of them have other pigments that are exposed when the chlorophyll breaks down. The result is beauty, on a magnificent scale.

14. I’m thankful for the phenomena described by the famous equation Einstein developed, e=mc2. It tells us that mass can be changed into energy, lots of energy. This energy, released by nuclear fusion in the sun, is (very slowly) reducing the mass of the sun, and provides the energy that plants turn into food, and that keeps the earth warm enough for life.

15. I’m thankful for lawnmowers and kitchen sinks. When I taught, I was seldom sure if I had really accomplished anything. When I wash some dishes, or mow some grass, or do other routine chores, like washing clothes, mopping, and the like, it’s easy to get a feeling of accomplishment. (The yard IS mowed now. The socks ARE matched and put away. The flowers ARE watered.) I’m also thankful for such routine tasks, which allow me to pay some attention to something else, without danger of messing up the job at hand.

16. I’m thankful for circles. Circles are beautiful curves. In nature, they are produced when some phenomenon is propagated in all directions at the same rate. For example, if a pebble is dropped into still water, the result is circular ripples. Trees generally grow at an equal rate, adding tissue outward from a center in all directions. When a tree is cut cross-wise, the result is a circle. (Actually, it’s often lots of circles, as growth rings are exposed.) Some flowers have a circular shape. Sound travels outward as an expanding sphere, so that, at any one level, sound waves from a point source are circular. The moon and the sun are almost perfectly spherical, and they appear as almost perfect circles. The pupils of my eyes are circular. Many human-made objects are circular, or have a circular cross-section. Where I grew up, pies were circular in shape. Coins are circular. Ice cream cones and eggs have a circular cross-section. I like circles.

17. I'm thankful for sensory neurons. They tell me, for example, what this looks like on the page, how the keyboard sounds, and where my fingers are, so that I can type this.
We often hear that there are five senses. There are more than twice that many in humans, depending on how they are counted. The sense of touch is actually more than one sense -- we sense pressure, pain, and both heat and cold. Both the senses of smell and taste depend on more than one type of sensory neuron. There are sensory neurons in the brain, monitoring the state of the blood, hence our body's states. There is a sense of balance. There are kinesthetic sense neurons that tell us where various parts of our body are located, so, for example, we can (almost) put the tips of our index fingers together in front of our face, with our eyes closed. And then there are senses found in some animals, that we don't have, such as being able to detect heat at a distance. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

18. I’m thankful for decomposers. Mostly, they are pretty yucky organisms – fungi, bacteria, maggots, and perhaps even vultures should be included. But they carry out a necessary job, which is breaking down once-living things, or cast-off parts of living things, making the minerals and organic substances in the remains available for other organisms. If they didn’t, much of the material needed for life would be lying around in the form of dead leaves, grasses, dead animals, poop and the like, piling up over time, except when a fire burned the stuff. It is possible to circumvent some decomposition by embalming – think of mummies. But what’s the point? What’s left is not really human, but just the carcass of what used to be one.
I’ve already been decomposed a lot. My skin cells flake off, for example. Perhaps you have some atoms in you that used to be in me, and perhaps I have some that used to be in you.

19 I’m thankful for J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. I worked in the library when I was in college, and had access to the stacks. I looked around quite a bit, and found The Fellowship of the Ring, which had recently been published. Although the Christianity in Fellowship and related books is not obvious, Tolkien’s enormously popular books were written from a Christian world-view, and, largely, re-shaped the writing of fantastic literature. I have read seven of his books several times, and some others once. Tolkien strongly influenced C. S. Lewis, to become a Christian, and for years after that. Lewis became a leading author of apologetics, as well as of science fiction and fantasy works, which were, and still are, well received. I first found The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe while messing around in the University of Wisconsin library, which was my introduction to Lewis. It had nothing to do with my graduate program, but Lewis has had quite a bit to do with my life. As Puddleglum says in The Silver Chair, “There are no accidents.” As to the Christianity in their fiction, Lewis, and especially Tolkien, were writing the books they need to write, and their Christianity showed through.

20. I’m thankful for sugars. Sugars are not only tasty, but essential. Photosynthesis, the process by which atmospheric Carbon (in Carbon Dioxide) is inserted into living things, produces sugar as an end product. Plants use this sugar to make food molecules, and for structure. Some of the sugar produced by photosynthesis is used to make amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Some is used to make fats. Some is used to make carbohydrates, such as cellulose, a molecule used to enable plant structures to grow to great sizes, or to assume beautiful shapes like leaves and flowers. We, of course, get protein, carbohydrates and fats from plants, or from animals that eat plants, and we use cellulose in the manufacture of paper and of some kinds of cloth. Cellulose is also an important part of wood.
If you are hospitalized and need food energy, you are given glucose solution intravenously. Glucose is a sugar. Table sugar, derived from sugar beets or sugar cane, is a combination of glucose and another kind of sugar. There are many kinds of sugar. One of the most important is deoxyribose, which is one of the building blocks of DNA.
I know that sugar on my teeth allows tooth decay bacteria to grow, and too much sugar in my diet may help me to gain weight, or perhaps to behave abnormally, but, overall, sugars are of enormous positive importance. In Bible times, honey was a major source of sugar, apparently. Sugar beets and sugar cane were not available to the people of the Bible.

21. I’m thankful for music. It seems clear that God invented it. Although it may not be meant to be taken strictly literally, Job 38 is a lecture to Job, on the creation of the earth, and it says that the morning stars sang together then. The angels also sang at the birth of Christ. The disciples sung a hymn when they left for the Mount of Olives, where Christ would be arrested during Passion Week. Revelation (again, perhaps not to be taken literally) suggests that there will be a vast choir in heaven, perhaps singing forever, perhaps singing to mark special occasions, such as the triumph of Christ. The Bible, thus, associates the four most important events that took place in the past, or will take place in the future with music. Music is not just for these epic events. The Psalms have a number of admonitions to sing to God. 1 Corinthians 14:15 and Ephesians 5:19 do, too.

22. I’m thankful for that amazing substance, water. Water is one of the raw materials used in photosynthesis, the manufacture of food. Water is beautiful, whether in lakes, ponds, rivers, oceans, clouds, snow, dewdrops or rainbows. Water is unusual in several ways. It exists as a solid, liquid, and gas at temperatures commonly experienced. This makes the water cycle possible. It requires an unusual amount of energy to change it from one state to another, which helps to stabilize air temperature, keeps iced drinks cool, and also means that our bodies don’t succumb to exposure to cold temperatures quickly. It is transparent, which allows us to see (our eyes have fluid in them.) It dissolves many other substances, including hormones, food, waste products, neurotransmitters, enzymes and antibodies. I’m mostly water, and so are you, and all other living things.

23. I’m thankful for memory. I can remember a lot of things, some beautiful, some exciting, some inspiring, some pleasant, some rather ordinary – maybe those are the best kind. There are also, of course, some memories of failure, or tragedy. Our memories change with time, so that I’m probably not remembering a lot of stuff the way it really happened, but remembering is still important. Without quite a bit of memory, I wouldn’t be the person I am – just consider someone with Alzheimer’s, or some other form of dementia. However, I’m also thankful for forgetting. I’ve forgotten a lot of bad stuff, as well as some ordinary stuff. (I’ve also forgotten some good stuff, but, on balance, we’re probably better off to forget.) Most important, God says that He has forgotten forgiven sin!

25. I’m thankful for the Bible, the most important way God has chosen to communicate with 21st century people. It’s a great book, written so that it spoke to the culture of ancient Israel, and it still speaks to me, although through imperfect instruments, including my own prejudices, my own culture, translators who may not have gotten it all quite right, and language itself, which is inherently ambiguous. Do I understand all of the Bible? Definitely not, but I understand enough of it. In one sentence, it tells me that I have a sin problem, and that there is a sinless remedy for it, which I need, and can’t provide for myself.

26. I’m thankful for the medicine and medical care available to me. I recognize that there are many millions of people in this country who don’t have health insurance, and I know of at least two people who have died because they didn’t have it – they didn’t go for treatment until it was too late – but I have and can get, medical care. God can, and does heal, but He also chooses to work through rest, exercise, good food, medicines, therapy, surgery, and through conscientious people who provide such services, and I’m grateful for this. Healthcare isn’t the most important thing in the world, although sometimes we act like it is, but it is important, and I’m glad to get it.

27. I’m thankful for emptiness. This sentence would be difficult to understand without spaces. Thissentencewouldbedifficulttounderstandwithoutspaces. Music needs rests, speakers should pause once in a while, printed documents and books use white space, and the sky is more beautiful with gaps between the stars than if it were solid uniform light. Our lives should have gaps, when nothing is scheduled, so we can renew ourselves, or so that God can use us to do something that wasn’t on “our” schedule.
Some people say that we have a “God-shaped hole” in our souls that we try to fill, unfortunately often with pleasure, power, sex, drugs, and other inappropriate things. Jesus said that a person who had had an evil spirit expelled was in danger of having that hole filled again, with even worse spirits. I’m thankful for emptiness.

29. My underwear says that it’s made of 100% cotton. Both parts of my underwear. That’s all I’m going to say about my wardrobe. However, I’m thankful for fibers, including cotton. Why? To shamelessly quote the Wikipedia: “They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals, for holding tissues together.
Human uses for fibers are diverse. They can be spun into filaments, string, or rope, used as a component of composite materials, or matted into sheets to make products such as paper or felt. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials are generally made as fibers, for example carbon fiber and Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene.
Synthetic fibers can often be produced very cheaply and in large amounts compared to natural fibers, but for clothing natural fibers can give some benefits, such as comfort, over their synthetic counterparts.”
So. Imagine a world without fiber. No paper, not much clothing, string, rope, fabric in autos, or trees, and, besides, we and other animals would pretty much become a blob of glup.
Fiber is also used in a moral sense, as in “moral fiber,” or “the fiber of my being.” I hope that, in the fiber of my being, I want to follow Christ. Thanks for reading. Perhaps your information equipment uses optical fibers, so you could. I know that your own information processing system uses nerve fibers.
My wife reminded me that I should have mentioned that fiber in the diet helps prevent colon cancer. She’s right.

30. I’m thankful for the blood of Christ. As 1 Peter puts it: “18 knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ;” (World English Bible, public domain) The only way to redemption from sin’s penalty, death, is trust in the power of the sacrifice of Christ, which sacrifice was validated by His resurrection. Why blood? We don’t know for sure, of course, but blood is symbolic of life. Many crime dramas, on TV and the movies, show blood. Lots of it. Fake blood. But we understand that if we lose too much real blood, we’ll die. We also understand that if the heart, which pumps blood all over the body, stops, we’ll die.
Why is blood so essential to biological life? It carries food and Oxygen all over the body. It carries off Carbon Dioxide and other wastes. It transports the hormonal signals that tell the body to do so many different things. It carries white blood cells and antibodies, which fight off invasions. It helps regulate temperature. It connects an unborn embryo or fetus with its mother. Blood does this, and many more things. How appropriate that it was taken, by the ancient Hebrews, as a symbol of life.

You probably noticed that, for some reason, the entries kept getting longer.

Remaking God in fiction, re-done

E. Stephen Burnett wonders if authors are on safe ground when they remake God in fiction. (He says that The Shack did that, for example.) He asks, but does not answer, three good questions, which he extrapolates from the writing of C. S. Lewis.

The questions (paraphrased) are:
1) Can a Christian writer write a story about a God who is different? (Different commands or personality.)
2) Can a Christian writer write a story with a character who defies God?
3) What purpose is served by doing either 1) or 2)?

Burnett is a good writer, but he does not make clear, at least to me, exactly what he is asking. I think he is asking if a Christian writer can do these things and remain in God's will.

Let me muse about these matters.

Question 1 - Can a Christian writer write a story about a God who is different?

As I see it, there is possible danger in such writing. I believe that it would be possible to write a story about a God who was so different from the Christian God that the story would be blasphemous. It would also be possible for a reader, or the writer, to become too interested in a false god -- a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments.

However, in a sense, the Old and New Testaments present seriously different views of God. The Old Testament God required sacrifices, and adherence to Jewish dietary laws. The New Testament God was a sacrifice, and Christians are no longer required to keep the dietary laws. But, of course, this was not fiction.

J. R. R. Tolkien, an influential writer, usually considered to have been a Christian, presented a false god, or several of them, in his writing. Sauron, although he was, in Tolkien's phrase, "but a servant,"of a more powerful being, was worshiped, and demanded such worship. He was clearly thoroughly evil. Melkor/Morgoth, the great enemy, Sauron's master, was even more powerful, and more evil, and also was a god, to some. In fact, Tolkien had a whole pantheon of lesser beings, some good, some not so. Was he blasphemous? Most would say that he was not. He was merely telling a story. These evil beings were the equivalent of Satan, the real enemy of God, and of God's people, and lesser demons. The good ones were something like angels. Some of them, possibly, were like saints, in the Roman Catholic sense of the term. (Tolkien was a Roman Catholic).

Even though Tolkien had some evil gods, they were not supreme. As in the real world, there was a supreme, good God.

It seems to me that it could be legitimate to present God in a different way, as Tolkien did, if maintaining his goodness, love and supremacy. Some readers might become too obsessed with such fictional deities, but that would be their doing, not the author's. It would be possible to fantasize lustfully about Salome, or Bathsheba, or to covet Solomon's wealth or wisdom, but that would not be the fault of Matthew and Mark, or of the author of 2 Samuel or of 1 Kings.

It seems to me that The Shack also presents God in a legitimate way, although apparently I disagree with Burnett about this.

Elizabeth Moon, an important writer of fantasy and science fiction, has written several novels in an imaginary setting. I have previously posted on the question of whether these works should be taken as Christian novels, or not. I am not sure if Moon meant to portray a polytheistic religion, with a supreme God, and lesser gods, or one that is like Roman Catholicism, with a supreme God, and saints, especially Gird, who was once a living man. As a Protestant, I don't believe in the efficacy of prayer to any but the Triune Supreme God, and believe that prayer to saints comes close to, perhaps is, a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments.* To expand on that, there are some Christian elements. (See my post.) Moon, who is an Episcopalian, and active in her church, has posted a summary of the religion in these books.

Lois McMaster Bujold is also an important writer of both fantasy and science fiction. Like Moon, she has incorporated religious ideas into the fabric of one of her imaginary worlds. (There is a fantasy series by Bujold that I have yet to read, and I would guess that she has done that for this sub-creation, also.) I have also written previously about whether one of her novels can be classified as Christian, and, again, concluded that, although there are Christian elements, it can not. Bujold has done some experimenting -- she has constructed a theology based on five more or less co-equal gods. These gods can reveal themselves to people, and are otherwise real to some of her characters. I do not know whether Bujold is a Christian. There are a few Christian ideas, and apparently a Christian character, in her science fiction series.

C. S. Lewis, perhaps the most important Christian writer of the twentieth century, wrote fantastic fiction, for children, and for adults, as well as about Christianity. In fact, Barnett uses Perelandra, a fantastic novel by Lewis, as a focal point in his essay. By emphasizing Lewis, I think Barnett has answered his own question, with a firm "yes." Why? Because Lewis also wrote a sequel, That Hideous Strength, wherein Merlin is possessed by angelic beings, a non-Biblical concept. And, especially, Lewis wrote Till We Have Faces, a book set in a pre-Christian time, with a pagan goddess, Ungit, who was represented by an idol, and with the god of the mountain, apparently the Greek Cupid.

Question 2 - Can a Christian writer write a story with a character who defies God?

Again, I turn to the Bible. Job and Paul defied God, at least at first. Pharaoh, and several Israelite and non-Israelite kings also did so, for their entire lives, or began by following God, but ended up defying Him, as apparently Saul and Solomon did. And let us not forget Satan.

Enough said. The answer is "yes."

Question 3 - What purpose is served by doing either 1) or 2)?

As to writing about a character who defies God, the purpose should be to set forth an example that we must not follow, or of the error of such defiance. (Kings David and especially Manasseh defied God, but repented, and so can and must we.)

What about writing about a different God, or god?

Till We Have Faces made a point that Christians must take to heart. That point is that God is not required to answer our questions. He is, Himself, the answer. Could this point have been made in a book written of a time and society where there were Christians? I suppose so, but it would have been a drastically different book, and perhaps Orual's defiance, had it been of the one true God, would have turned Christian readers off, whereas defying pagan gods is not so likely to. Defiance, and its answer, was necessary to make Lewis's point.

Bujold's gods of Chalion seem to me to be a different matter. She seems to have done what writers of fantastic literature should do, namely present us with a universe like ours, but with some substantial difference, then describe what that would be like. Ursula K. Le Guin did this about gender in her The Left Hand of Darkness, for example. What would it be like if gender was not fixed? But is it legitimate to tinker with a universe by imagining different gods? I'm not sure. Not to have done so would have made the story quite different, but there could still have been goodness, service, and sacrifice in it, as Bujold's Cazaril showed so well. And creating a theology with no single supreme being strikes me as dangerous.

Let me answer the question for Elizabeth Moon (I have used Bujold and Moon because I am familiar with their work, and because of their prominence.) What about Moon's whole zoo-full of gods (or maybe saints) and spirits? Is that wrong, for a Christian writer? Well, let's put it this way. I submit that Tolkien did the same thing. There are all sorts of evil spirits, and good ones, and a pantheon of gods, in his sub-creation. There is little or no worship of a supreme being, private or public. There is no clear Christ-figure. Yet what he did is accepted as having been good, even Christian fiction, by many Christian writers, probably including Burnett.

I would say that if there is a story that an author must tell, and the author herself is not in defiance of God, there may be legitimate reason to write such a story, even though it presents different gods. I think that's what happened to Tolkien. There are certainly dangers. Pride and idol worship, being attracted by the occult, or having gods before the one true God, come to mind. Prayerful care must be taken. I also think it is possible to write a story with a god who differs from God, or including defiance of God, if the author's intent is to present a lesson that is best presented in that way.

Thanks for reading. Read Burnett's essay.

*On October 2, 2011, I changed a key sentence about Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion novels, which was "In a word, they are polytheistic, hence not Christian," to the two sentences before the asterisk in the work above. The reason is that I have re-read the books, and it seems clear that they describe one Supreme God, who is to be worshiped. I didn't come away with that impression in my first reading, several years ago, but I should have. I also changed what I said about Tolkien, adding the idea that some of the good beings, who are no longer mortal, may have been saints, rather than minor gods, and made a few minor editorial changes, related to the ones just described, or to improve the clarity of the post.

This is a re-post, with some revisions, of a post from April 13, 2009. I have removed (unintentionally) the previous post.

Thurber, Bunyan, Tolkien and MacDonald on odors

From The White Deer, by James Thurber (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1945):
You'll know the woods when you are still a long way off by virtue of a fragrance you can never quite forget and never quite remember. (3)

From all the trees a sticky thickish liquid dripped and oozed and gave or rather lent the air a heavy sweetish fragrance, for the sweetish heavy fragrance died and rose and died again and rose and died and rose again. (50)

Yet hints come to me from the realm unknown;
Airs drift across the twilight border land,
Odoured with life; and as from some far strand
Sea-murmured, whispers to my heart are blown
That fill me with a joy I cannot speak,
Yea, from whose shadow words drop faint and weak:
Thee, God, I shadow in that region grand.
A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, by George MacDonald (public domain, entry for May 29.)

Ned's eyes were white with wonder. "May I look at it, Dad?" he said. He took it with careful fingers and peered into the flowers. "The work is a marvel!" he said. "And, Dad, there is a scent in the bells: a scent that reminds me of, reminds me, well, of something I've forgotten." J. R. R. Tolkien, Smith of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles of Ham (New York: Ballantine, 1972), p. 49. Smith, the Dad, has brought home a marvelous flowering head from fairyland.

Were I to adopt the figurative language of Bunyan, I might date this letter from the Land Beulah, of which I have been for some weeks a happy inhabitant. The Celestial City is full in my view. Its glories have been upon me, its breezes fan me, its odours are wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the River of Death, which now appears but as an insignificant rill, that may be crossed at a single step, whenever God shall give permission. Included in the on-line version, here, of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (public domain). This was not written by Bunyan, but in a letter from a Dr. Payson, near his death.

Thanks for reading!

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy -- Christian?

Great literature will be important long after today's news is forgotten.

I have recently posted on the three books of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. The post on The Fellowship of the Ring is here, on The Two Towers here, and on The Return of the King here. The books are wonderful, and everyone who likes, or can even tolerate, fantastic literature should read them.

I have, in the past, attempted to set forth a diagnostic description of what makes a novel Christian. I, perhaps arbitrarily, concluded that such a work should have at least the following characteristics. (I quote the previous post):
First, some sort of important choice between good and evil. There should also be evidence that a character has hope, beyond despair. Such a work should also contain at least one of the following, as a significant part of the plot, or the theme, or as an attribute of an important character: 1) A Christ-figure 2) Belief in important orthodox Christian doctrine, on the part of a narrator or character 3) Practicing prayer to a monotheistic divine being 4) Having a relationship with such a monotheistic divine being in other significant ways, including receiving guidance from him, or being placed in his presence.

Now, to evaluate the trilogy.

Clearly, there are important choices between good and evil. Bilbo decides to give up the ring, Frodo decides to take it, and the other characters of the Fellowship decide to follow him. Saruman decides that he wants the ring for himself. Galadriel decides that she does not. Théoden chooses to throw off the ministrations of Saruman. Faramir decides to trust Gandalf and Frodo, rather than his own father. Sam decides to be loyal to Frodo, no matter what. There are others, but the books are full of such choices, and they make up their main feature.

There are a number of instances where a character demonstrates hope beyond despair. The whole attempt to destroy the ring is one such. Gandalf, Galadriel, Théoden, Faramir, Éomer and Éowyn all show such hope, as do Sam and Frodo, and others.

I'm not as confident about the last criterion, even though there could be alternate ways of fulfilling it. I don't know of any explicit expression of an important Christian doctrine, by any of the characters. The only episode which is even close to prayer is described in a quote from The Two Towers, in this post, but it is not clear that it's prayer at all, and, even if it were, it's not necessarily to a monotheistic god. There is no evidence of a relationship with a monotheistic god, either. So that leaves the matter of a Christ-figure. There are at least two possible legitimate candidates, I believe. One of them is Gandalf, who put himself in grave danger, and, seemingly, died, near the end of Fellowship. Then, in Towers, he seems to have been resurrected. Frodo also could serve as a Christ-figure. He willingly offered himself to a task that seemed difficult, and to offer only death at the end. He didn't die, but did lose a finger, and also was not able to live with the rest of the hobbits, in peace and safety, at the end of the trilogy.

Rather to my surprise, since there is no evidence of anything close to communal worship, priests, or scripture in Middle-Earth, I am forced to decide that Tolkien's trilogy can, indeed, be described as Christian.

Thanks for reading. Read Tolkien!

The Return of the King, by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Return of the King is the third book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, by J. R. R. Tolkien. I am so grateful for the impulse, and the opportunity, after I'm not sure how many years, to read these books again. They have their flaws, and I have pointed out some of them (see also my previous posts on the first and second books) but they are well-crafted, with some believable, three-dimensional characters, a suspenseful plot, a well-described setting, and, above all, they are uplifting. By the end of this book, the major source of evil in Middle-Earth has been removed:
'A great Shadow has departed,' said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears. Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed. (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963, p 230)
Here is a poster, which includes another quotation about Gandalf's joy, from this book.

But at considerable cost:
I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them. But you are my heir: all that I had and might have I leave to you. (Frodo to Sam, p. 309)

The trilogy is about heroism. The heroism isn't riding off on a white horse, with trumpets blowing and flags flying, to get people's attention, but it's agreeing to try to do a job you don't understand very well, that promises to be difficult or impossible, and sticking to it. The main heroes are Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee, although there are others.

For more of the plot, see the Wikipedia article on the book, which is the first link in this post. I wish to muse about a few matters.

1) Celeborn - I had read the book several times, but apparently hadn't caught the fact that Celeborn, an elf, and the consort and husband of Galadriel, did not leave Middle-Earth with Galadriel. Tolkien doesn't make the reason, or the consequences, clear. (See here for Wikipedia article on Celeborn. This article, from the Tolkien Gateway, also indicates that Tolkien did not seem to have a clear idea about Celeborn's origin.)

2) Tolkien's descriptions, and the genealogies in the appendix, spend a lot of time in detailing ancestry. Having high parentage is important, again and again. Tolkien seems clearly to have believed in a class structure (which is hardly surprising for one born in 1892, in a British colony). He also uses color. Fair hair is often related to nobility or goodness. Dark skin is often related to evil.

3) Some sentient and intelligent creatures in the books have no redeeming features. By this, I mostly mean the orcs, but the same could be said of trolls. There is nothing to like about them. No orc, and no troll, ever does anyone a good deed. Presumably they have no choice in these matters.

4) Tolkien was a scholar of languages, and it shows. He made up some for his sub-creation. There are several languages mentioned, occasionally with examples given. These include the languages of men, of orcs, of ents, and of elves. There is more than one language used by men, and more than one used by orcs, and more than one by elves. These beings all use a common speech, on occasion, at least. Sometimes the love for languages shows too much, as in the many names given to characters and things. But it was Tolkien's book.

5) There is a love story in the book. It is not long, but Tolkien carefully describes how Faramir and Éowyn fell in love, and does so from both of their viewpoints. Éowyn is Tolkien's most fully developed female character, although Galadriel is more important. Arwen marries Aragorn, but she appears but seldom, and says less, including all three books.

6) As in the previous books, the role of providence is important. Pity, as related to providence is critical in this one. It shows up in the relationship between Gollum, Sam and Frodo. Sam wants to kill Gollum, but does not, out of pity. Frodo knows that Gollum is dangerous, but does not kill him, either, also out of pity. In the end, it is Gollum who unwittingly provides the climax, the achievement of the quest.

My post on the second book, The Two Towers, is here.

Again, I'm glad I read these books again! Maybe in a few years, I'll have another go at them.

The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

I have re-read The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, by J. R. R. Tolkien, once again, and, this time, am blogging about the books. My post on The Hobbit is here, and that on The Fellowship of the Ring is here. There is, of course, a good Wikipedia article on the book, and also one on the Peter Jackson film based on it. I won't concern myself with the film here.

One of the most remarkable features of Towers is the resurrection (?) of Gandalf. In Fellowship, the last we see of Gandalf, he had fallen into an abyss, while in single combat with an evil being. In Towers, he appears, to the surprise and joy of Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Merry and Pippin. But there is serious work to be done. Gandalf explains that he destroyed the Balrog, but that he was changed in the process. He does not describe what happened to him, but does indicate that the eagle who carried him to consult with Galadriel after his restoration said that he weighed a lot less. The Encyclopedia of Arda article on The Battle of the Peak between Gandalf and the Balrog unambiguously describes what happened to Gandalf as a resurrection, without using that word.

There are many moral choices confronting the characters. The one described in the most detail is the choice of Saruman, offered by Gandalf. Saruman, of the same order as Gandalf, was sent to earth, like Gandalf, to help elves, men, and others to withstand Sauron and other evil beings. But Saruman fell, mostly because he became fascinated with Sauron and his doings. As Elrond put it: ' . . . It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.' J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963, p. 278. In Towers, Gandalf asks Saruman if he will renounce his attempt to mimic Sauron, and rejoin the battle against evil. Saruman refuses. Gandalf tells Merry that, although he did not have much hope that Sauron would choose to change, he had to try, and that Saruman almost chose to join Gandalf. But he did not.


Pippin also was confronted with a choice:
'I wish I had known all this before,' said Pippin. 'I had no notion of what I was doing.'
'Oh yes, you had,' said Gandalf. 'You knew you were behaving wrongly and foolishly; and you told yourself so, though you did not listen. . . .' (about ) J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962. p. 204. Pippin took the palantír from Gandalf, while Gandalf slept. Gandalf's speech to him, quoted above, would be widely applicable now.

Frodo, Sam, and even Gollum have moral choices to make, as Frodo tries to enter Mordor so that the Ring can be destroyed, accompanied by faithful Sam, and by Gollum, who is anything but faithful. Among these choices are what to do with Gollum. Frodo does not have Gollum killed, even though Sam wishes that he would choose to do so. Gollum sees, in Frodo and Sam, something of what he might have become, but remains self-centered as he has been for centuries. Sam chooses to follow Frodo, no matter what.

There is a little evidence of providence in this book, but not as much as in Fellowship. Sam blurts out the nature of Frodo's quest to Faramir, then is immediately afraid that Faramir will take the Ring. Faramir doesn't, and tells Sam that perhaps he was supposed to impart this information.

There is a female character, Eowyn, who is of some importance, and a spider-like monster who is said to be female. But, as in the previous books, this one is male-dominated. There is an entire species, the Ents, who have been separated from the females for centuries, perhaps millenia. There is no appearance of female orcs. Toward the end of the book, two orcs discuss getting away from the "bosses" -- Sauron, Saruman and others, with a few trusty lads, to start up somewhere on their own. In this Wikipedia article on orcs, there is a statement that female orcs do not appear in any of Tolkien's writings, except in a letter, wherein he indicated that he realized that there must have been females.

The only occasion of worship in all three of the books is this:

Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence. Faramir signed to Frodo and Sam that they should do likewise.

'So we always do,' he said, as they sat down: 'we look towards Númenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be. Have you no such custom at meat?' (284-5, to Frodo and Sam, who do not have any such custom.)

Thanks for reading!