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Originally Posted by davem
But what then is the source of this pre-existing standard?
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Well, I would say it is ultimately Eru; but afterwards, everyone else had a hand in it. He directly taught the Men and the Valar; the valar taught directly the elves and Aule the dwarves. In turn, the elves were the primary teachers of the Men, and Men probably took from dwarves a little bit more than just parts of their language. Afterwards, each and every society of Men would build various cultural "lenses" through which such teachings are interpreted. And ultimately, all understanding is subjective. And even if we remove all these personal, cultural and historical layers, and would somehow have access to the original revelation, I doubt we can derive from that how would a God see good in its ultimate complexity, seeing that many, if not most, of the mysteries of life and creation are hidden.