[Religion]

Well I'll wait to post more Thug AMish's post.  You have a really interesting point there.  Morality is achievable without belief in a God.

He's not the only one to think so, since i agree with him wholeheartly.

This does not imply that morality cannot come out from religion, but simply that there are also other ways to build one upon.

My two cents

Matteo (aka Rohirwine)

[Religion]

Well, i voted as atheist. But my question is: is correct to define Atheism a religion? Imho it's not. Because atheism does not explain what's going on in this universe. It only states that god does not exist. Usually religions not only assert that there is some form of divinity, but also (i should say: mainly) explain how the universe was born, and how it will end (if it's the case: hinduism, if i'm right, asserts that there will be a never ending cycle of changes...) when they don't try to explain how it works.

Cheers

Matteo Slataper (aka Rohirwine)

[I Introduce Myself]

Thanks to you all for the warm welcome.

I'll try to keep an eye on what's going on here as best as i can.

Cheers

Matteo

[How will flying units be handled?]

And if they didn't fly, why would they have wings? Unless they are like penguins, but Morgoth doesn't seem like that kind of Vala

I've always thought that they had wings, but couldn't fly.

Penguins being the exception, I think fighting anything that had huge wings that could be spread and "whipped around" or whatever would be a lot feircer than no wings. Imagine them standing up tall and spreading their wings while warming up their whips on the ground. Pretty threatening, eh?

Now imagine a penguin with no wings trying to fight you... I bet you laughed !

I think that Tolkien wanted to give them a demoniac appearence, to underline that they were similar to the fallen angels of the christian tradition. Moreover it could be possible that this fact of having wings without being able to fly is a sort of symbol to remind them and the others that they would have been free in spirit (who is more free than someone who could fly?) if only they could resist to Morgoth.

My two keleb cents

Matteo Slataper

[What Is The Best Form Of Economy ?]

Remember that the only reason the workers in the Western countries got so many advantages in the last century, was because there was another working model, embodied in the USSR, that offered a different solution; and the risk for capitalists of being crushed was very real. Now that this danger for them has disappeared, we're witnessing a return to the crudest forms of capitalism (neo-liberalism). And that, in my opinion, is not good at all.

How right you are!

In my opinion, in the so called "socialist democracies", things went much away from the theories of marxist economists. In fact, even if the state economy was centralized (with only few medium sized private activities allowed in some countries, as Yugoslavija), in fact the whole thing was governed by an oligarchy, arisen from the ashes of the former states. In Russia this was the prime cause for a series of riots and revolts among the bolsheviks (one for all: the famous Kronstadt revolt).

More or less the same happened in the other communist states arisen at the end of WWII. So, even if the economy was centralized, there was no way a citizen could exhert a political control over the flow of richness. And of course the leading oligarchy had the best part of it. This is one of the causes that led to the fall of communist states. In my opinion if you don't fit a just political sistem to an economy, you cannot have the best economic results, and there is a bunch of blends of this combination.

Matteo Slataper

[I Introduce Myself]

I forgot to say that i have some knowledge in database developing, i occasionally draw something decent (but i fear it isn't at the level of the sktches in the site), and obviuosly, if you need a document search or a bibliography i'm here for that purpose....

Rohirwine

[I Introduce Myself]

I obviously wish to introduce myself here.

I'm a librarian from Italy, with a deep interest in Tolkien's works, and in J.R.R.T. related gaming as well.

So there are two main reasons for me to be here: as a librarian i value much every kind of free knowledge exchange, free and cohoperating project developement and so on. As a Tolkien enthusiast i'm very actracted by the subject of what is going on here.

As has been outlined in the introduction of TLA, i feel that the Jakson's films (by the way, the RotK one hasn't already come out here) are beautiful films, but do not match my vision of the books, neither develope faithfully the concepts from Tolkien's works.

So, here i am.

Hiall

Rohirwine

P.S. By the way, are you used to sign with nicknames or real names?