Inherent Evil

[Nils]

The body does not have to have an effect on the mind. And, even so, how did it become inherent to the body of every living thing in ME, if that is what you are suggesting?

Tolkien answers both of your questions in Morgoth's Ring. Here is the quote:

Melkor ‘incarnated’ himself (as Morgoth) permanently. He did this so as the control the hroa, and ‘flesh’ or physical matter, of Arda. He attempted to identify himself with it. A vaster, and more perilous, procedure, though of similar sort to the operations of Sauron with the Rings. Thus, outside the Blessed Realm, all ’matter’ was likely to have a ’Melkor ingredient’, and those who had bodies, nourish by the hroa of Arda, had as it were a tendency, small or great, toward Melkor: they were none of them wholly free of him in their incarnate from, and their bodies had an effect upon their spirits.


Oops, I see I posted this same quote earlier in the thread. [img]smilies/redface.gif[/img]

[ July 30, 2003: Message edited by: Nils ]