Don’t worry. I try not to judge groups based on individuals.

Yeah, I don't know what Guy who types stuff is trying to say, but his somewhat flawed doctrine doesn't represent Christian thought.

In an attempt to get the thread back on track, this is basically a question of whether you would side with tyranny or not. Pretty clear answer.

^ I said Godzillavkk is a good person, did you read what I said? You can be a good person without being Christian, but atheism is bad for the soul.

I am atheist, and my soul feels fine.

Back on track, I don’t think it is as simple as choosing between tyranny and freedom. I think it is a matter of choosing between the tyranny of men and the tyranny or the Valar. You’re stuck following a tyrant either way.

What makes you think the Valar are tyrants? That certainly wasn't how Tolkien saw it.

The Valar made laws without consulting the people who were affected by them. Things like forbidding men from sailing west may have been in the best interests of men, but men should have a say in the kaws that govern them. Then, when the men violated a single rule, the Valar committed genocide.

You're viewing the gods as if they're a form of human government. That's not the way Tolkien's universe works.

It doesn’t matter if they’re a government or gods. They’re the ones making the rules. When unelected officials, be they gods or men, decide what rules everyone else has to follow without any checks on their power, then that is tyranny. No being has the right to subjugate another, no matter how powerful they are.

^Tolkien was, of course, a Christian, and as such his mythos is shaped around Christian ideals. One such ideal is the idea that God (Eru, or possibly the Valar) is in charge of our destiny; we are not his subjects so much as his children.

This idea needs to be studied in order to grasp Men's relationship with the Valar. If they were indeed controlled by Men, then I would absolutely agree with you on this point. However, because Men in Akallabêth are children to the Valar, as established by the mythos, it is perfectly within their rights to make and enforce rules for them. This is seen in the fact that the Elves and Men are known as the Children of Ilúvatar throughout The Silmarillion. The Valar are not, as you might refute, also Children of Ilúvatar; the Elves were referred to as the First Children of Ilúvatar. It is again never (to my knowledge) said that Eru created the Ainur; only that he rules them. In your childhood home, were you and your siblings (if applicable) ever given the right to vote on family rules? Did you outvote your parents and thus gain the right to drive before eighteen? Then do not compare Gods and Men, for they are as to parents and children.

The Valar may refer to Elves and men as their children, but Elves and men are not children. They are functional adults capable of making their own decisions. And, to use your analogy, parents do not kill their children when they misbehave. It is important for parents to set clear boundaries for their children, and to make sure that their children understand why these rules are in place. The Valar set the rules and then disappeared for millenia. If they are parents, then they are deadbeat parents.

Tolkien obviously wrote the books through a Christian lens, but it is up to the reader to interpret the stories through their own lens. I am not a Christian, so I do not view these events in the same way that Tolkien did.