The Treason of Isengard: Eru's Plan?

[davem]

Originally Posted by burrahobbit

Of course not. Feanor would never choose pacifism, but that isn't the point. What I am trying to say is that a person can not possibly be free to make moral decisions in a deterministic universe. The two ideas are incompatible. Either a person has a fate/free will or he doesn't. There may be some wiggle room, but if there is no possible way for you to avoid certain outcomes then you do not actually have a free will, and whatever the outcome is it is the desire of whoever/whatever it was the made the decision. The deterministic cosmology of Middle-earth is the land of the Turing Machine.

As an Elf/Valar/Maiar you have moral freedom to the extent that you may not be able to choose what you do but you can choose how you do it.

Also, the cosmology of Middle-earth is not deterministic - it would be if Men did not exist, but they do, & they can act outside the Music - 'which is as fate to all things else'.

Eru did not say that 'none may change the Music' - He said 'none may change the Music in My despite'. Men's 'gift' is the freedom to change the Music - within the bounds set by Eru - & those 'bounds' are not the Music per se, but the bounds He sets. Only Men have this freedom. Men are what stop Arda from being a deterministic universe - that's their purpose.