What happened at Mount Doom?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

However, if Eru is intended to be God within the Legendarium, with all the powers and attributes of God, an assumption that seems likely, then any queries concerning Eru's workings withing the Legendarium should logically be answerable by looking at God.

If Eru+Arda = Image of God+Earth, then the actions of Eru should equally the actions of God as they would most likely occur in the same circumstances.
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Well, they should. I suppose we can either compare Eru with God (specifically the Catholic conception of God) & ask if He lives up to that comparison - if its a good comparison or not - or we can treat Eru as a character in His own right & ask what kind of 'God' He is & analyse His motives & behaviour.

Is Eru morally Good - ie does He do things that we consider to be 'Good' things - protect the weak, feed the hungry, heal the sick, guide His children in the ways of 'righteousness', etc, or is He 'merely' (as Celebuial suggests) an 'artist'?

The danger of thinking Eru=God is that we project our beliefs about God onto Eru (God is Good, Eru is God therefore Eru is Good) without stopping to ask ourselves if Eru's behaviour is Good.

In short, I think Eru=God is 'assuming that which is to be proved'.