Inherent Evil

[Nils]

Something just struck me while rereading my post:

Or they could just be their seperate personalities. Their personalities tied into the sub-creative power given to them by Eru.

Melkor was originally good. He did not rebel. Did his rebellion come as result of a hidden time bomb or was it a result of Melkor's growth?

In other words, is Melkor a result of his 'genetics or enviroment'? How we react to the world is greatly influenced by how we perceive the world. How we perceive the world is greatly influenced by our prior experience. Part of that experience is how the world reacts to us.

Since the powerful are rewarded by acting in an evil way, evil behavior is reinforced. Seeing that one can do certain things leads to a sense of arrogance, that leads to pride that leads to the fall.

In that equation somewhere comes self control. In that equation somewhere lies the knowledge that using the greater power to 'win' is wrong and will lead ultimately to destruction. At least once its been seen to happen. Perhaps Melkor did not see the end result of his choice to use his power to force his desire, but others like Gandalf did and chose to reject the ring of 'power'.