Origins of Iluvatar

[Evisse the Blue]

To be a creator, you do not necessarily have to have been created.

Yes, but mythologies, usually expand on this idea, and tell in detail not only how the earth was made, but also how the original creatures came into being. Take the Norse sagas, for instance, which greatly inspired Tolkien's works. They tell that in the beginning there was a void, wich broke in two, and so forth; and later the good beings, the Aesir, and the bad ones, the Giants, 'appeared' in a miraculous way, of course, but not unexplained by the storyteller. Although I see you arguing further that Iluvatar is similar in all respects to the Christian God, I still think that the Silm, including the Valaquenta, has more in common with myths than with the Bible.

I do not know too much about Tolkien's work as a whole either, having read only disparate books, but I recall having read that he didn't provide an explanation as to how the Sun or Moon appeared either. (Although he did tell about the stars and the constellations).