The Yin and the Yang of it

[Kaiserin]

Thanks, lindil for your corrrective and additional info on Yin/Yang. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] I have neglected the sunny/shady, male/female, fire/water facets. Thanks, also for the excelent examples.

Eru can of course be seen as Pure Light, but he creates first amidst the backdrop of the empty void.

- Good example where the yin/yang is present in Eru. It is seen here as light/darkness. It doesn't necessarily have to be good/evil.

aragornreborn: I'm not questioning whether Eru is entirely good, but I am suggesting that "good" may not necessarily mean "perfect". If Eru truly was patterned (intentionally or unintentionally) after the Christian God, I would agree that Eru is completely good. True, a god with inner conflict is no god at all. Eru's being entirey good, however, doesn't necesarily disagree with yin/yang. His being light in darkness, as well as his creation of all things from nothingness(as in lindil's example) - these things do not suggest any evil in Eru, but present two complimentary and antagonistic forces.

[A person] will never be completely good because he is not God nor is he perfect. So he can not call himself good just because he can not attain complete goodness. And if he was able to master that “one grain,” then he would be good because there would be no evil in him. But he would not be able to master it since he is imperfect.

...Therefore nothing can be considered good? [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

The statement about mastering the grain of evil here, I believe, does not refer to eradicating the evil within oneself, but rather choosing to act against that evil. A person's will to do good may overcome his desire to do evil, may it not? Think: Boromir. He may have had an evil desire for the Ring and for power, but he later chose to act against this. Still, one evil intention does not make anyone label him as "evil". His being a "good" person with an "evil" intention isn't unrealistic, it and creates interest in his character as well as the story.

I do not believe that Morgoth is the opposite of Eru. They are not equal - Eru created Morgoth, which places Eru as definitely greater. Still, they represent opposing (though not equal) forces. The deities themselves are unequal, but those forces of good and evil may have equal effects on Ea and its inhabitants.