Wisdom about war from "The Lord of the Rings"

I am rereading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings many years after my last reading.  At the front of the copy, on 11 Jan 2002 I wrote:

“Do we Orc-hestrate our wars?  We are the Fellowship and our enemies are the Orcs.  We slaughter hundreds of them without qualm and bury with great honor the few of us who suffer more than scratches.  See p. 58.”

On p.  58 I bracketed:
‘Deserves it!  I daresay he does.  Many that live deserve death.  And some that die deserve life.  Can you give it to them?  Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.  For even the very wise cannot see all ends...'

Gandolf gave this response to Frodo’s condemnation of Gollum who is “as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy.  He deserves death.”

"Life is not conservative"

Harry Drabik concluded an interesting analysis of "conservative" thought with the above statement.  It is in his column "north shore notes" in the Reader Weekly, 2011-06-02.

"Life is not conservative.  It is wildly radical existing on sea bottom deeps, high mountain peaks, and dry deserts.  There is nothing conservative about life on this planet.  If you believe in a Creator about the most disrespectful thing would be to take all that marvelous, vibrant complexity and reduce it to a narrow little fairy tale that suits you small fancies."

Creationism is hubris

Those who study evolution observe how God created life. Creationists tell God how He created life.

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18