Yes, I'm familiar enough with the Valar (though I do have "re-read the Silmarilion" on my to-do list). I vaguely recall that the War of Wrath was stopped because the Valar realised that in order to destroy Melkor, they'd have to to destroy so much that there wouldn't be anything left, no elves or men or anyone. That the price was too high.
So the big question I was coming up against was: why are they so bad at preventing all this suffering to begin with? Is it just incompetence or their limitations, or what exactly?
There's the thing... how much of a "sneak peek" did they have? Did they know enough to know that the War of Wrath would be pointless, or not? I think what you're saying here, correct me if I'm wrong, is that while it appears to have been pointless and a waste, there was some hidden point to it, that in order to get from A to C, the War was a necessary point B in between. That doesn't sit easy with me either, and yet...
The Problem of Suffering is a biggie, and I don't think any of the answers people have given are really satisfactory, not when they attempt to tie it all up in a neat bow. Life is demonstrably Not Fair. And yet we demand of God that it ought to be, because if He was Just and Loving and Omnipotent, He wouldn't let bad things happen. Here's the thing, though. If there was no suffering at all, would we have any empathy for others? If nothing ever went wrong, would we ever appreciate things going right? If we had nothing to overcome, would we ever grow up?
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So the big question I was coming up against was: why are they so bad at preventing all this suffering to begin with? Is it just incompetence or their limitations, or what exactly?
There's the thing... how much of a "sneak peek" did they have? Did they know enough to know that the War of Wrath would be pointless, or not? I think what you're saying here, correct me if I'm wrong, is that while it appears to have been pointless and a waste, there was some hidden point to it, that in order to get from A to C, the War was a necessary point B in between. That doesn't sit easy with me either, and yet...
The Problem of Suffering is a biggie, and I don't think any of the answers people have given are really satisfactory, not when they attempt to tie it all up in a neat bow. Life is demonstrably Not Fair. And yet we demand of God that it ought to be, because if He was Just and Loving and Omnipotent, He wouldn't let bad things happen. Here's the thing, though. If there was no suffering at all, would we have any empathy for others? If nothing ever went wrong, would we ever appreciate things going right? If we had nothing to overcome, would we ever grow up?