Lord Melkor Rightful Master of the Fates of Arda

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Originally Posted by C.S. Lewis

So what do people expect of God then? For him to take away everything that makes us who we are? Stop us from having experiences and such so that we never learn from mistakes or otherwise? Or do people just want a God that is indifferent or says, "What does it matter if they are good or Bad? As long as they are happy!" so what they really want is less a Father in heaven, more a Grandfather, a senile old man giving out sweets indifferent to all. For, of course, one man may find great pleasure in the torture of another or the throwing of insults, which means that the other party would not feel pleasure but pain. What is to happen here?
Some say that they wish God would just leave us alone and to our own devises in order to seek out our own happiness (a thing in itself we cannot define, really). It seems that people do not want more love from God, but less. If a father sees a son playing with matches and the child is very happy in itself, will he not take the matches from him lest he burn himself thought the child may feel that he is unfairly treated or had had a great asset taken from him?

Thanks for the quote, Hookbill.

How about a god who, having the ability, stops needless suffering? Sure, I know that a little suffering does me some good, as I, as an adult, have the ability to understand and therefore gain wisdom from the ordeal. But what about children? What about those that live out a mean short life full of pain and sorrow then end up dead. Where's the point in all of that? Some might say that these little ones are to suffer that I may learn something, but that, to me, is just whitewash.

As a father, I know that there are times when my children must learn via pain - the burned hand, the skinned knee, the bruised heart. But there are times when I must intervene, as the child may not survive the lesson (i.e. swallowing poison), and so there is no point to allowing the rebellion to continue. Maybe there are more strong-hearted fathers out there who allow their children to explore free will to death, literally, but me - I want to save all of them. Anyway...

And what is good? I've never been comfortable when confronted with, purportedly, moral absolutes, as I've always noticed that there's an asterisk next to the "thou shall not..."

Note that I'm not after any particular religion or creed here, but just trying to make a point:

• Thou shall not kill...except when unbelievers get in the way.

• Thou shall not eat each other...except when stranded in the Andes.

• Incest is bad...except when consolidating power via a monarchy.

• etc

So what is good? When we act in conformity with our community's needs and expectation? When we promote the survival of our genes (and the genes of those like us - a possible explanation of altruism)? Anyway.

Life under Melkor would not be good. He was all about power, and the only way to know that you're in control of another, as indicated by George Orwell, is to make the other miserable. That way, you know that they do your will and not their own, which would be to escape misery. Eru and Manwe allow for a possible good life. I can do what I want - seek happiness - to the limits that the world allows, knowing that Melkor, Sauron or one of his spawn will be trying to hedge me in.

Melkor could have been good, but he sought to interfere with others' abilities to explore their freedom, and did not want to establish a border with some compromise.