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Old 04-14-2007, 08:59 AM   #102
davem
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
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davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Of course, being omniscient Eru must have known the choices Melkor & those who followed him would make, & therefore brought them into being knowing what they would do. Hence in making them he is 'responsible' - not for making Melkor choose evil over Good, but for making him knowing that he would choose evil over Good. Which means he made him knowing that he would rebel & that he would suffer being cast into the Void.

But Eru didn't have to act. He didn't have to create anything. When he chose to create in full knowledge of what would happen rather than not create at all, he makes himself ultimately responsible for the suffering that will ensue - as well as the Glory that will result. Note: Eru is not responsible for creating evil as such, but he is responsible for creating anything at all when he knows full well that evil will come into being as a result (direct or indirect) of that act of creation.

(Of course, maybe he did have to act - maybe creation is Eru's nature & he cannot therefore not create.)
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