Inherent Evil

[Nils]

Nils, I am confused about where you got an idea about punishment from what I have written.

This is what led me to believe that you thought that those who chose to do evil things were going to be some how punished.

Good point, Nils. But..... then someone with a handicap (a corrupted hroa in some way) could claim that as justification for doing something against the will of Eru?

Why is there the need to claim a justification (or defense) for doing something against the will of Eru?

Now on to the next point:

My point is the evil is in the choice, not the hroa or the fea. Hroa are just molocules and cannot be evil.

According to Tolkien, this is not true. I posted the quote twice already, but I'll do it again:

From Morgoth's Ring:

Melkor ‘incarnated’ himself (as Morgoth) permanently. He did this so as the control the hroa, and ‘flesh’ or physical matter, of Arda. He attempted to identify himself with it. A vaster, and more perilous, procedure, though of similar sort to the operations of Sauron with the Rings. Thus, outside the Blessed Realm, all ’matter’ was likely to have a ’Melkor ingredient’, and those who had bodies, nourish by the hroa of Arda, had as it were a tendency, small or great, toward Melkor: they were none of them wholly free of him in their incarnate from, and their bodies had an effect upon their spirits.

[ August 06, 2003: Message edited by: Nils ]