The White Council

Why is there evil? (was Re: Ranking Bombadil, Sauron, and other great powers)

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: I thought these questions were close to being asked. This leads : into the a discussion of theology and the nature of God. For : the sake of argument we'll assume there is a God, else these : questions have no meaning. Aren't we asking the age old : question "why does God permit evil?" And is there a titanic : srtuggle between good and evil for domination of the universe? : I am not very good at cosmological or ontological arguments. I : only took Philosophy 101, and the only thing I remember is that : if you took all the philosophers in the world and laid them end : to end they still wouldn't reach a conclusion.

Actually, from a Biblical (and Tolkienist) viewpoint, this is hardly a monumental question. When God chose to bestow free will on other beings, he chose to accept the existence of evil. One can therefore argue that it is (in God's estimation) better to permit evil to arise than to prevent it's conception through denial of free will.

In Tolkien's mythology, the free choice of all beings is central to the definition of the deepest evil. Melkor (and later Sauron) wanted to suppress the free wills of other beings, to order things as they saw fit. Their original rebellious acts were therefore not as sinful as their ultimate efforts to suppress free will.

Of course, the "age-old" question posed in the New Testament is, "Why doesn't God put an end to evil now?" And the answer is, "Because if he ends it today, someone who would have repented tomorrow would be condemned". i.e., the plan calls for the loss and redemption of a certain (unknown to us) number of people.

In Tolkien's mythology, there is a sort of parallel. The plan calls for a certain length of Time to unfold, and in that time people are free to choose as they will.

Of course, just as evil offers enticements, so good offers them as well. Making the choice more difficult thus brings out the best (or worst) in each of us. It helps us grow. And Tolkien's characters often make mistakes which -- if they were dealt with immediately through irreversible consequences of their actions -- would prevent them from learning and growing.

And I know a popular counterpoint to this concerns the children who die every year, and so forth. Such a discussion would be way off-topic for this board and much too time-consuming to make it worthwhile. Let it suffice to say that an imperfect vision of a perfect plan will produce unsatisfying explanations.