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I can only agree that Eru could not deprive the new world and it's inhabitants of free choice by destroying Melkor and setting the ONLY way of existance.
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For there to be a Choice, there must be two sides, God's Side, and the devil's
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If someone has to have originally made the choice to disobey, how could the devil/Melkor have chosen that path? I believe Eru did not destroy Melkor for the same reason God does not end the life of evil men like Hitler; because they could, in theory, repent, not to see what havoc they can cause on the world and only partially to test the good.
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Whether it's because the creator just isn't that nice, or because of a higher purpose or a greater reason that we don't yet know about, we won't know until The End.
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(my emphasis)
Are you saying Eru is not good? I believe the deffinition of good is doing God's will. Aside from that I can see how many people may think certain events could only happen if there was a mean, malitious, or even evil god, but I am convinced these cases have logical explanations and that these people are just looking at the wrong view of a good God (maybe a cushy, feel goody, touchy-feelly God?) or do not want to believe in a good God or even any god and have to face their own sinfulness.
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i guess my original Thesis was related to the Yin and Yang Theory. without the "Evil" you cannot define "Good" and vise versa, and im sure that was in Iluvitars plan.
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Speeking purely about Illuvatar (and not God) I would like to point out that Tolkien was Catholic (and quite devout at too; he made his wife convert for the Church of England before he would marry her) and I doubt he would modle Illuvaltar on any god but the Christian one.
From the view of reality and Middle Earth, I do not see how evil would be required to define good if God/Eru exsisted for all eternity and evil only exsisted once the devil/Melkor rebeled. Eternity is an oftly long time for something to exist without being defined.
In short, I see no way that Illuvaltar could be moddled after the Yin Yang modle of the universe.