Hmm, I missed a trick with this question, rather than Does
Ilúvatar deserve to be worshipped? I should have asked: Does Ilúvatar exist? This is certainly not a religious question, simply asked out of observation. The fables of
men refer to a voice, but nothing material or tangible. So I wonder now, does he exist or is he simply a fable of men and
elves alike? Who contrived the story of Ilúvatar and what is the evidence to support his existence?
Walter, wonderful answer
Then again, if he doesn't really exist he would neither deserve or ask to be worshipped.
Well, if you don't believe the
Ainulindalë or the
Valaquenta provide evidence of the existence of Ilúvatar (or his actual voice in
The 'Tale of Adanel') then it's likely you'll have to think outside the box here.
I'll have the proverbial college try:
There are a few references in
Letters about the lack of
Eru's presence within
Arda:
The Letters of JRR Tolkien - #211: To Rhona Beare
The One does not physically inhabit any part of Eä.
The Letters of JRR Tolkien - #181: To Michael Straight [drafts]
There is no 'embodiment' of the Creator anywhere in this story or mythology.
This obviously makes it difficult to
prove or provide evidence in support of the existence of Eru.
If taken from a literary perspective, there would be the intrinsic necessity of a
Creator to give
authenticity to a
mythology or
Legendarium and as such a
Creator would therefore be inevitable in this
tale.
The Letters of JRR Tolkien - #200: From a letter to Major R. Bowen
Melkor, who ultimately became the inevitable Rebel and self-worshipper of mythologies that begin with a transcendent unique Creator.
I acknowledge the
flaw per se in the use of extrinsic material but proof of a
Creator's existence can be gleaned from the mind of the author of the mythology. It can also be derived from this concept that a
Creator is an inexorable constituent of any
mythology.
I find the most compelling argument for the existence of Eru to be through the
events in which he himself
becomes present and through these
events he does, in the sense of Destiny and Fate, become
present within Arda. Two of these events that have especial note is the
Fate of the Ring and
The Drowning of Númenor. Tolkien has this to say about the
Fate of the Ring and Eru's involvement:
The Letters of JRR Tolkien - #192: From a letter to Amy Ronald
Frodo deserved all honour because he spent very drop of his power of will and body, and that was just sufficient to bring him to the destined point, and no further. The Other Power then took over: the Writer of the Story (by which I do not mean myself), 'that one ever-present Person who is never absent and never named'* ...
*Actually referred to as the One...
And I'm going to have to make a thread about this as the are many reasons why I consider PJ's
Fate of the Ring to be better than Tolkien's
eek
as it portrays the self-destructive nature of
evil instead of the Predestined nature of Arda.
The other,
The Drowning of Númenor was Eru's direct intervention:
The Letters of JRR Tolkien - #211: To Rhona Beare
Sauron was first defeated by a 'miracle': a direct action of God the Creator [Eru], changing the fashion of the world, when appealed to by Manwë:...
And for the textual evidence:
The Silmarillion: Akallabêth - The Downfall of Númenor
Then Manwë upon the Mountain called upon Ilúvatar, and for that time the Valar laid down their government of Arda. But Ilúvatar showed forth his power, and he changed the fashion of the world; and a great chasm opened in the sea between Númenor and the Deathless Lands, and the waters flowed down into it, and the noise and smoke of the cataracts went up to heaven, and the world was shaken.
I personally find this enough to constitute the existence of Eru within Arda. There is another excerpt from
Morgoth's Ring that I also find to be quite blatant evidence of Ilúvatar's existence:
The History of Middle-earth X: Morgoth's Ring - Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth: Appendix - 'The Converse of Manwë and Eru' and later conceptions of Elvish reincarnation
Manwë spoke to Eru, saying: 'Behold! an evil appears in Arda that we did not look for ...
Eru answered: 'Let the houseless be re-housed!'
But by playing Devil's Advocacy and the atheistic perspective one could use the convincing argument of Sauron's in his perversion of the Númenoreans to evil:
The Silmarillion: Akallabêth - The Downfall of Númenor
Then behind locked doors Sauron spoke to the King, and he lied, saying: 'It is he whose name is not now spoken; for the Valar have deceived you concerning him, putting forward the name of Eru, a phantom devised in the folly of their hearts, seeking to enchain Men in servitude to themselves. For they are the oracle of Eru, which speaks only what they will.
However even Tolkien acknowledges this was a lie, and the direct intervention of Eru is punishment for the foolishness in the Númenoreans conversion to the Dark. Interestingly Tolkien also discusses Sauron's acknowledgement of Eru in
Myths Transformed:
The History of Middle-earth X: Morgoth's Ring - Myths Transformed: VII - Notes on motives in the Silmarillion: (i)
Sauron, could not, of course, be a 'sincere' atheist. Though one of the minor spirits created before the world, he knew Eru, according to his measure.
I would likely conclude that is was through Eru's intervention in Eä is where his existence may be 'found'. As for worship of Eru and whether he
deserved it. The Firstborn did not consider that Eru
deserved it as they had no organized religion; but Tolkien still describes Men and Elves as monotheists in
Letters.
Cheers,
Úlairi.