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Originally Posted by Lalwendė
But in Christianity its the actions of the first two humans which causes evil to enter the world; if they had resisted then we must presume it would not have happened. Whereas in Arda, the peoples (peoples because I'm including Elves and Dwarves) are blameless. Rather than resisting the evil/sin that's become inherent in human nature, they must resist the evil/sin that's in the very fabric of the world.
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Note that previously I'd stated exactly your point, as that's how it would seem. But when I'd read that, from the beginning, Satan was sinning, it made me consider this again. Now I doubt that there are answers out there, but wouldn't it seem that, if from the beginning, Satan were evil and were present in whatever form in the Garden of Evil, that, basically, one could state that evil were already in the world before Adam and Eve took their first bite of the same? It almost seems a legal technicality to be argued before a jury.
Now, one might counter that evil may have existed in the universe prior to Adam/Eve's sin, and that it was their willful choice of it that brought it into the world (tangent - if there is God and Free Will, sin would exist simply because one could chose 'not God.').
Anyway, I do like, as you state, that in Tolkien's world not everything is born with stain (there's a nappy joke in there somewhere), but with the choice to embrace or resist it. That may be why a 'works' theology (as opposed to grace) is popular even outside of Middle Earth - you feel like you're doing something, whether adding negative or positive chits, but that, in your beginning, you start out with a zero balance and not in debt.