Thanks for your provocative thesis, Bombadil - that's often a good way to get an excellent discussion going. Here are my thoughts:
Eru was an artist, a musician first and foremost, not a sadist! The first few sentences of the Ainulindalë show us a Creator who:
1. Sought fellowship and relationship.
Quote:
...he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the off-spring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them...
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2. Wanted to create.
Quote:
...propounding to them themes of music...
Ilúvatar... declared to them a mighty theme, unfolding to them things greater and more wonderful than he had yet revealed...
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3. Wanted his creation to result in joy and glory.
Quote:
...they sang before him, and he was glad.
...things greater and more wonderful than he had yet revealed; and the glory of its beginning and the splendour of its end amazed the Ainur...
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4. Desired harmony.
Quote:
Then Ilúvatar said to them: 'Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony a Great Music.'
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5. Encouraged others to exert their creativity and power.
Quote:
And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices...
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It is all summed up in the last sentence of the third paragraph of the Ainulindalë (All of these quotes are from the first page):
Quote:
'But I will sit and hearken, and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song.'
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A sadist is interested in exercising power over others, not letting them develop their own. He/she is destructive, not creative, and does not look for beauty to result from his/her actions. And he/she is most certainly not interested in harmony and real fellowship with others!
(I looked up 'sadism' on the M-W online dictionary; here is an excerpt:
Quote:
...gratification is obtained by the infliction of physical or mental pain on others; delight in cruelty; excessive cruelty.
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I can see no evidence of such gratification or delight in Eru as he is shown in the Ainulindalë.)
[edit: davem posted while I was writing this; as you can see, I do think we are given information about Eru's personality, in those very paragraphs I have quoted.]