Perhaps I should have prefaced my previous post with "This is intended to be pure speculation." It was meant to open a question for discussion. I started the paragraph with "perhaps" to suggest an uncertainty, not an answer. Since I haven't finished LOTR, I am working on incomplete knowledge and I am sure I will need to read it more than once anyway.
The Ring, while not a character, has some power itself, or a power behind it. It seems to slip on and off fingers in ways that tend to bring it back to its master. Against all odds, Bilbo finds it in a dark cavern. While at THE PRANCING PONY, Frodo accidentally slips the ring on at the most inopportune time. It's almost as though the ring has a mind of it's own. Sometimes in fantasy, inannimate objects do.
If you believe in fate, then no effort will return the ring to its master because its destiny is to be unmade(or it is the Dark Lord's destiny to loose the ring and suffer defeat). If you believe in a Benevolent Universe then the Ring will still be unmade and the Dark Lord will still be defeated. Of course the Benevolent Universe will always produce good while fate is indifferent.
When contrasting theories exist, the scientist will rely on observation and experiment, the scholar will return to his sources and the relegious man will turn to his faith. We can turn to our faith, or Like scholars, we can to go back to the source: to Tolkien's universe. At this point, with my limited knowledge of LOTR, the fact that Tom Bombadil exists tilts Tolkien's creation toward a benevolent universe.
My knowledge is too limited to say more. I have to finish the entire trilogy and perhaps even read the other books.
