LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 02 - The Shadow of the Past

[The Saucepan Man]

For further operations on this thread, however, let us agree to have a nomenclature as follows:

Good = original state of everything
Evil = thing originally good, but corrupted

Well, that works for me. But I think that we must bear in mind that many who read LotR do not go on and read the Silmarillion or Tolkien's other works, and have no in-depth knowledge of his beliefs. For many, therefore, there is no definitive explanation of what is meant by Gandalf's oblique references to Bilbo being meant to find the Ring etc. This is harking back to the Canonicity discussion, I know, but these readers will be free to interpret these references as they see fit. They might take this unknown force which meant Bilbo to find the Ring to be fate, or the spirit of Middle-earth, or a good God who is opposed by a co-equal evil God in a duotheistic system, or a monotheistic and omnipotent force of Good, or even one or more of a pantheon of Gods. Or, more likely, they (like me when I first read the book) may simply not think about it too much.

So, while I think that your definition works in the context of our knowledge of Tolkien's works, it will not necessarily be applicable to all readers.