Look above at the links to those programs on the BBC just now which are just like taking a cat (fish, human, reptile, monkey) apart to see how it works. Like Tolkien taking apart a body of literature which is a mixed bag of history, invention, superstition and propoganda. Folks analyse the bible in the same way. It's a mixed bag of stuff.

I remember a bishop once saying on the radio that the early books were someone (can't remember who, was it Moses ?) trying to make sense of a load of stuff that had been handed down and that there is more than one creation myth in the bible because there was more than one doing the rounds.

On the otherhand, LOTR as a work of fiction was created as a complete work.

Created by the hand of Tolkien...