Iluvatar made Melkor evil?

[Rían]

and re hell: your quote:

from this i gather that the jews and muslims will suffer eternal damnation in hell, since they dont accept jesus as the son of god, only as a prophet of his word?

The quick (and correct) answer is that God is just, as Lief said, and He clearly states that it is His will (ie, his desire) that all be saved, although it is our choice because of the free will that He has given us, and that we shall have no excuse because He will have clearly presented everything we need to make the choice for Him. He also clearly states that we are saved through Jesus.

Now I think that unfortunately some Christians have gotten a little legalistic and oversimplified things - you've probably met some - those that say, basically, you have to say this little prayer in these words to become a Christian. However, I firmly believe that the truth is not that simple; it usually isn't, especially when you're talking about things of God (which makes sense, because to put it simply, He is WAY smarter than us!!)

You see, Abraham, who is called the Father of our Faith, was referred to in the Bible as having been made righteous by his faith. Now as Christians, we are "made righteous" by our faith in Jesus. But Abraham was born WAY BEFORE Jesus!! So how could he have been saved when he didn't even know who Jesus was? The answer is thru his faith, and "through Jesus" in some way that we don't fully understand. The God described in the Bible is NOT unjust! He won't say, "sorry, I guess you missed the announcement when you fell asleep - now go to hell!" Again, His desire is that all are saved, and He presents information to us so that we CAN make a decision for Him, but in the end He will let our free will choice stand.

And finally, since this is getting so long, just a quick note about what hell and heaven are. So many people think heaven is a lovely little place where happy little people have lots of fun things to do, and hell is the awful place where a crabby and unjust God sends people to when He is mad with them. Well, the extrememly short version is: heaven is where God is, and hell is where God is NOT. Heaven is a glorious place where God reigns, as is completely right! And His people will fall on their faces and worship Him in amazing joy! God does not "send people to hell" kicking and screaming; on the contrary, He tries everything to get them to heaven, even kicking and screaming, but there is a point where it is so obvious that a final decision has been made, and the person does not want to have anything to do with heaven (which is where God reigns in majesty), that God, with great sorrow, says to them "YOUR will be done" - and the only alternative to heaven is hell.