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Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man
One further question arises in my mind, however. Are there such things as “natural” disasters in Arda (volcanoes, earthquakes and the like) or are all such phenomena the consequence of evil (in which case they will ultimately be the consequence of free will)? Such things cause suffering too, but if they are not the consequence of evil, then why does Eru allow them to exist within Arda? Did He give “nature” free will too?
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Such things cause suffering, but they can also cause good. I question the effect that the inhabitants of Middle-earth could have had on nature, except for their actions causing the Valar to intervene with the weather (see
Windy and Cold and
The Symbolic Significance of Weather). But if the chaos theory works in Middle-earth, then something as simple as the flight of an arrow can trigger a hurricane. If the arrow was being fired for 'good purposes', would the Valar intervene and stop the hurricane? What if the archer knew what would happen and fired it anyway, because the need for the arrow was greater than the possible suffering of the hurricane? He'd be justified, but would he be responsible for the loss of life in the hurricane? I suppose it's a good thing we can't see along the future branches and see the consequences of our actions, because then we'd all be too scared to move!
Would the Valar, allow something as massive as the weather to be controlled by chance, or would they control it themselves? If they control it themselves, as they seem to do at least part of the time, then we can assume that many weather occurrences actually are for the better. Are there any instances of this in the books?