I don't have the Latin, neither for the rigourous Judging Exam or (more to the point) to say properly that "Sola scriptorum" always means "Scripture alone, as interpreted by you and men who can convince you with words or weapons that they know better,"....
If one is an atheist or near that, the idea of relying on an external source for salvation (as opposed to relying on each other for doing better than we have) seems particularly dangerous because there is no external source. Those who think they're relying on God are actually still relying on their own, flawed, selves and other people's, but will tend to give them the credence due an infallible and benevolent source. This simultaneously ignites my atheist crap-detector and my Jewish training's loathing for idolatry, which can involve big molten or graven images, but always involves setting up something else in God's place...better that the universe be sedevacant than to bow before a squatter.
The closest I'll come to the idea that this a Fallen World is an acknowlegement that the Evil Inclination usually has an easier time of it, entropy being what it is...so, for example, post-Beard/Kinney, the National Lampoon devoted itself to afflicting the afflicted and comforting the comfortable, it's much easier that way.
I'll reinforce an argument made a little while back by Greg London, and which jibes with an obsession of mine: American antinomianism. It shows up as "Dirty Harry" and the acceptance of prison rape; in the admiration of the super-rich and the hatred of the supposedly not-humiliated-enough welfare mother. For the Elect, all is permissible, to the Damned anything may be done...and there is a line between the two that really can't be crossed.
It shows up in Cheney's fury at talk of Mary's baby and his own policies: she isn't lesbian (Preterite), she's from a rich and powerful family (Elect).
Some people want to believe they deserve all the good things they've got; one way to do that is to believe that _everyone_ has got what they 've deserved (and it's not, at least in their own case, the whipping King Lear suggested).
I don't buy the Warrior Cult meme that's invaded our minds---wars are won by soldiers, and the "honour" of the Warrior usually never extends to respect for anyone but---but I can't help but wonder what older codes of honour would say about a salvation completely unearned and undeserved.....
"So you see, Gandalf," said Saruman, continuing "that insofar as I act toward my own desire for the Ring, I act only according to Nature, and so become not good as good-in-itself but attain the innocence of the unthinking beautiful Beast. When I rule with the Ring, there will exist that unbridgeable gap between my estate and that of my fellows which will inevitably induce the creation of true art, though few will be fit to appreciate it."
(Hint: When you look into the abyss, a falling wizard and hellbeast may look back at you.)
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"Now that you're king, shut up and kiss me, you big lug," she cried, her noticeable assets shifting pleasantly in her cantilevered dress.
(Hint: Bilbo is the true Tolkien Individual.)
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"Who is Frodo? Frodo is the first hobbit not to be ashamed of his own ability to rule the entire world with this Ring, the first not willing to see it fall onto the finger of a second-hander with a weak chin."
"And since I realise that Arwen is the only rationally-suitable woman, elf or human, for Aragorn, I, Eowyn simply checked the premises for the next-most-rational choice for myself, deciding on Faramir by virtue of his self-consistent embodiment of underlying moral principle, and not for the swell of his buttock or the reputed largness of his Quality."
For a glimpse of (what I guess are) the older undergarments, see "Plan 10 from Outer Space"...which also reveals the Secret of the Bees.
(It ends with someone making a full and complete records of the events on 5.25" floppies, and burying them in a hillside....)
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