[Folwren]

I haven't read the entire thread - I don't have time - but I wanted to suggest something.

I never considered the Valar evil...I never thought that what they did to Numenor as evil...The faithful got away with their wives and kids.

This discussion made me think more about it, though, in what ten or so posts I read. Perhaps it could have been much like Sodom? When God destroyed Sodom he told the one faithful man and his family to leave the city and not to look back. He destroyed Sodom, but he let the faithful escape - but the faithful man's wife looked back and she too was destroyed.

There were warnings given, were there not? And the faithful did get to escape, didn't they? If the women and children didn't leave, wasn't it their own fault? Well, the children were innocent, surely. How many of them do you think would have left their home to go with the remnant of the faithful? Another argument is the kids were too young to make such a choice... What was Eru to do? Let them live until the children were old enough to make their choice? What are the chances that they would make the right ones?

I don't think the Eru or the Valar were evil in this destruction of Numenor. I think it was the case of Sodom - they didn't find enough faithful within the city to spare it.

-- Folwren

P.S. I think capital punishment would solve a lot of our problems...