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Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Well, I don't want to start that brouhaha you wished to avoid, but isn't the real problem the fact that the Creator, whether it is Eru or Tolkien's real God, cannot create something as perfect as He is? (I seem to recall this as a topic of discussion on "Paradise Lost". Could even have been a Second Age discussion, it was that long ago.)

By definition. Or not, as what created God? How could perfection create non-perfection? Unless what we perceive as paradise lost is actually perfect, albeit from a different point of view.

Even I haven't the energy to whip this horse.

So for every Creator, the actual object of creation always fails to live up to the concept originally entertained?

As far as we know. It's been considered that the death of gods comes from boredom. What's the point if you know everything that is, was and will be, down to the fall of every sparrow's feather? Maybe the perfect universes don't include sentient beings or entropy - kind of like well-made dioramas.