Right, let me see if I can remember what we were arguing about.
I believe what we're really discussing is whether Morgoth is the prime cause of evil in the world, or if Eru, since he in fact is the utmost cause of everything in the created world, also is the prime cause of evil.
You claim that the latter is true and I can't disagree. In this mythology Eru Illuvatar is the source of everything; he created Melkor and must therefore be the rote cause of everything Melkor conceives of also.
Yet Melkor it was that marred Arda with his discord. To speculate about the how much pre-knowledge Eru could've had about this is taking the analysis to absurd levels. Melkor wasn't born evil; he "fell" from his preordained high path and rebelled against Eru. You come with many argument that the choice to do good or bad was always there, regardless of Melkors marring. And this is a resonable conclusion if we weren't talking about a fictual mythology but rather an underlying real world that the stories referes to. But it isn't a real world. It is a fictional mythology. It is my opinion that within this mythology as it is written Melkor introduced evil as a moral cathegory. Notice that during the elder days, nothing bad even happens without Melkor behind it. The fall of men, the rebellion of the noldor, the slaying of the trees, the destruction of the lamps; it's all Morgoth.
We have also read about the marring. Melkor has dispersed himself into the very fabric of earth, making everybody who draws a physical body from matter of Arda fallable and tainted. When Miriel died she wasn't the first elf to want to die in Aman, she was the first elf to die in Aman period. Even though elves' bodies theoretically could be destroyed which would "kill" them, this wasn't suppose to happen in Arda Unmarred or the blessed Aman. When it did anyway the Valar were alarmed and took it as proof that Morgoth's marring could be brought even to Aman. Without the marring of Morgoth Miriel wouldn't have died, the Valar agreed on, as life in Aman (without Melkor) was supposed to be blessed, without sorrow or grief.
IMO the evil of Morgoth is twofold. Firstly, Morgoth the
person is an incarnate Dark Lord, doing many evil deeds conciously. Secondly, Morgoth is also evil itself, represeted by the marring of creation. This marring of creation affects all creatures on Middle Earth, and is, among other things, a capacity or rather a tendency towards evil in them. The marring is working independently of Morgoth, and when Morgoth the
person was ousted from Arda, Sauron inherited the marring. Yet I believe the incarnate Melkor (before his ousting) could concentate his evil will on certain objects, like Hurin and his children. You speculate that the culmination of certain events might have caused rational being to do evil even without the marring of Melkor. And like I said, had it been a real world you'd would probably be right. But in the mythology as it is written Melkor represents evil and without him there would not have been any; he is after all the original Dark Lord or Satan if you wish.
Hm, I'm rambling on and I don't know if that made any sense. Well, here you have it anyway.
