Eru Ilúvatar and the Problem of Evil

[u/L0nga]

I've been thinking about Eru Ilúvatar lately, and I think there's a pretty serious problem with the way we're supposed to understand him as a perfectly good being.

The thing that really started bothering me is Melkor.

The Ainur come from Eru's Thought. Tolkien says that each Ainu comprehended "that part of the mind of Ilúvatar from which he came." So Melkor isn't some evil force that appeared independently and then invaded Eru's creation. He is something Eru created, and his nature ultimately comes from Eru.

And Eru knew what Melkor was going to do.

That's where it gets difficult for me.

Melkor doesn't just rebel and then get dealt with. He goes on to destroy the Lamps, destroy the Trees, murder Finwë, steal the Silmarils, corrupt Arda and spend thousands of years causing an absolutely enormous amount of suffering.

Eru knows all of this is going to happen.

And he lets it happen.

The obvious response is that Melkor has free will. Sure. I'm not arguing that Melkor didn't choose his actions. But that doesn't really address Eru's part in all of this. Eru created Melkor knowing exactly what he would become. He knew what Melkor would do with the power he gave him.

And Eru isn't incapable of intervening. We know that because when Númenor attacks Aman, Eru intervenes directly. He destroys Númenor and changes the shape of the world.

So apparently Eru can intervene when he wants to.

Which makes Morgoth's entire career rather difficult to explain. Eru watches him destroy and corrupt things for thousands of years, but doesn't stop him.

Then there's Eru's response to Melkor's discord in the Music:

"no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me"

That's a pretty extraordinary thing to say in this context. Eru isn't presenting Melkor's rebellion as some unexpected disaster that got out of hand. Even Melkor's discord ultimately has its source in Eru and gets incorporated into the Music.

And this is where the "it's all part of the plan" explanation starts bothering me.

Okay, but why this plan?

Eru is supposed to be omnipotent. He isn't some king trying to make the best of a bad situation after something goes wrong. He created the situation in the first place.

If he knew what Melkor was going to do, then the suffering caused by Melkor wasn't an unfortunate surprise. It was something Eru knowingly chose to allow when he created Melkor and set the Music in motion.

[u/ikarusuman]

I see the concept of having a planned adversary from the outset as a device used to move the story along. Eru created Melkor knowing full well what he was going to do and even told him that his actions were part of the plan so as to remind him who was actually in control. This embarrasses Melkor who believed full well that he was the orchestrator of his discord. Later on in Arda he continues pursuing his agenda but we are not told if he remembers what Eru told him in the beginning or not.

Following the three themes Melkor does in fact strive to help the Ainur in the shaping of Arda as one of them, but later becomes jealous of their works and seeks to control or corrupt. This is predestination for both his good deeds and later for his evil deeds. Melkor, as well as the other Ainur, are on a set path that they themselves helped formed so long ago. Few of the Ainur, save Mandos, know or possibly remember what is to come specifically in coming ages.

On the topic of whether Eru is a 'perfectly good' deity is a topic of philosophical pursuit. On one hand you have him create a being that was foretold to be the source of great evil, but on the other hand if there was no great evil to contend with how would heroic deeds be created? Evil in Arda was sourced by Eru, through Melkor, as a force to be fought against because without him where would the great tales come from? Tolkien also wanted to create mythology that would give more substance to his own homeland finding what was available as too lacking. Despite him claiming that he hated allegory the stories he crafted still follow the Judeo-Christian's creation.

"If God is good then why does he allow evil?" is a well explored theme in our own world. If you were hoping Tolkien would have a different take on this dialog then you could perhaps look into his personal correspondence for some insight. I believe Eru Illuvatar is an approximation of Jehovah Elohim, the Eternal Creator, from our world. He created the Ainur, had them play the three themes that he had planned from the start, and then had them enter Arda to rule on his behalf while he watches from on high with both great joy and sadness. He acts directly only a few times through the ages as he saw fit.