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Originally Posted by Iarwain
This brings me to my "remnants of good." Evil (and Tolkien says this in the letters) can never be complete. The moment a being becomes totally evil is the moment that being ceases to exist, because it has separated itself from Eru, and as Eru is existence, it has also separated itself from existence itself (spiritual suicide). Therefore, it is necessary for all evil beings to have some good in them, otherwise they would not be in the first place. I don't know how else to explain... Hopefully you understand.
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This is very like Meister Eckhart's idea - God is only aware of 'good', which He holds in existence. To the extent that we are 'good' we are held in being by God. If at any point we were to become wholly evil, God would instantly cease to be aware of us, & consequently of the need to hold us in existence, & we would simply cease to be.
Of course, Eckhart complicates things by saying that God is constantly creating Past, Present & Future from a point outside serial time, so that would require God to be aware of, & be creating, the person the person in the past, while they were good, but not aware of them in the present, when they had ceased to be good & become entirely evil. But you'd think He'd notice something was wrong if the person was there, needing to be created (ie 'held in being') in the 'past', but not there in the 'present' or the 'future', all of which periods would exist for God 'now'.