I havn't read all that is written in the above discussion, so someone may already have pointed this out. Forgive me for being inexact, but there is a point in the LotR where Gandalf says something along the lines of " ... nothing is evil in the beginning..". I don't think it is far from the mark to suggest that Gandalf is the LotR ME spokesman for all that is good and wise regarding ME. Even Elrond gives way to his counsel (e.g. concerning M & P's presence as part of the 9 walkers). Since we are thus led to trust Gandalf as the number one voice, at least in LotR,this in turn gives us some indication of what Tolkien intended concerning the nature of reality,good, evil etc. in and around ME. So, Melkor was not evil in the beginning. This, I would suggest, means that he was not created evil, but became evil by choice. To pinpoint will as the cause of this, I would point out that both Gandalf and Galadriel refused the ring on the grounds that they would, essentially, become evil if they possessed it. Therefore the potential for evil exists even in the purest characters, while gandalf's hope for Gollum's cure in the care of the woodelves suggests that the opposite potential for good exists even in evil characters. It is all a matter of choice.
In short, evil or good in ME is by will, not by nature. Tolkien intended Melkor and gollum to be evil, not illuvatar.
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