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Obviously, Sauron could not have had such a large army without breeding Orcs. Either with other Orcs, or prehaps with some other fell creature. Thus, we get something seperate from the first Orcs: the tortured Elves.
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--Durelin
One characteristic of a "race" as we consider it today is the ability to breed offspring who are not impotent and who share characteristics with their parents. It was obviously by art that we do not understand that the Elves were corrupted into Orcs, meaning that they became a new race and their offspring did not have Elvish qualities. In other words, somehow their genetic construct was altered (debating how this was done would be a fruitless exercise... some things in Tolkien's world just aren't meant to be questioned). This made their race original, and explains their ability to breed.
But we digress from the original question, which has been debated finely from many angles.
I would like to sum up the questions that have been discussed and attempted to present my own answers.
1. Are orcs inherently evil as a race? Can they do no good?
No. In my opinion, they do have the capability to do good. Tolkien, after all, was a Catholic and thus probably did not believe in the entire evil or goodness of a being or a race.
2. Is evil a state which exists because it was present in the Creator Himself?
I think this is the debate which has been most heavily argued in this thread. There were good points on all sides. I believe that evil in Tolkien's world is any action or virtue that conflicts with Eru's thought of how Ea and all of the life therein should be ordered. This is a fundamental Christian idea. If the Creator did not intend or purpose for something to be, then it should not be. In this case, you could say that the Orcs are "evil", being entities that Eru did not purpose to be alive within his world. Does Eru have the capacity for evil? This is an unanswerable question, because, as I said earlier, any action that he takes cannot be considered evil since his Creation is ultimate. Obviously he knows of the concept of evil, which in his mind is Melkor's conflict with the harmony of his themes and the discord that it wrought on Ea.
3. Do orcs have a will and soul within Ea?
I believe so. Just the simple fact that the orcs in the Two Towers are discussing what they
want and what they
wish for is enough to convince me that they have a will, and in my opinion a will is the physical realization of a soul.
4. Can orcs be redeemed in or after life?
In my own humble opinion, it is entirely possible for an orc to be redeemed, although I doubt that in mortal life an orc can be "cleansed" of its baneful characteristics. Again, based on Tolkien's devout Catholicism, I am forced to believe that there is some sort of purgatory (akin or equal to the Ring of Doom where Melkor was held in bonds for three ages), where creatures that fall under the category of "evil" in the eyes of the Creator can be absolved. Perhaps even Melkor, after the last battle and his ultimate doom, will be absolved.
I did not mean this as a summation of this thread, just as clarification and organization (for myself as much as for anyone else [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] ) of my views on all the key topics in this discussion.
Cheers!