The Yin and the Yang of it

[Yavanna228]

Interesting concept, Kaiserin.
Since, regrettably, I'm not completely informed about Eastern philosophies, the comments I'm going to make may be somewhat in error, and forgive me if they are.

- Eru-Iluvatar: He is considered entirely good, yet he permits evil (?). Could he perhaps have a margin of error, or probably a need for evil to make himself appear good against?

I know that Tolkien's Iluvatar is not the Christian God, so one cannot say for sure whether Iluvatar is completely good, or meant to be. One does not necessarily need to have an amount of evil in them to permit evil. In a paraphrase of St Francis of Assisi, true sovereignty is not the ability to prevent all evil, but to turn what evil happens into ultimate good. I know that deals with sovereignty, and is talking about the Christian God, but hopefully I can make it applicable to Iluvatar. In the Silmarillion, it says expressly that Iluvatar will make good the evils that happen, so Iluvatar probably does not need evil in order to make himself appear good. But perhaps my logic is off this morning. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Good and evil are coexistent, and even codependent (one cannot exist without the other).

I personally believe that good is independent of evil. One does not need the other to exist. I do agree, however, with the concept that everything 'good', outside of God, does have a measure of evil in it, thereby tainting any good that we do. And I believe that an action that is considered 'good', but is performed by someone who has evil in them, is only something which brings something/someone closer to the ultimate good than before.
This is quite a complicated issue, but hopefully will generate far better discussion than what my awful post does. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
Peace