Difference Between Sin And Evil
Sin
Different churches have had a different meaning of sin. Dancing, alcohol, card games, movies, rock music, sex, profanity, theater, long hair, nudity, short hair, short skirts, television, makeup, etc. – all this has ever been classified as sin. But the directories have changed over time.
At one time it was considered that there were “seven deadly sins” – and thus a number that was not quite as deadly. But trying to catalog the sins in this way is to risk falling into the same spiritual trouble as the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. In striving to live righteously, they had developed an intricate set of rules and turned the whole of existence to a spiritual obstacle course.
Evil
In a moral sense evil is contrasted with good. If an orderly, rational universe is postulated, and particularly if it is assumed that there is an omnipotent and beneficent creator, evil disrupts the order and results in sorrow, distress, or calamity.
In a derived sense evil is equated with any suffering or other misfortune. Its cause and what can be done about it are perennial philosophical and theological problems.
Natural and Moral Evils
A differentiation is often made between natural evils such as earthquakes, storms, and pestilence, and moral evils caused by hate, lust, greed, and so on. A volcanic eruption that claims thousands of lives is counted a natural evil. The eruption occurs as a result of scientific laws that, at least in theory, can be understood. If it is good for humans to have a dependable environment, it is not good for the natural laws to be nullified. A flood is considered a natural evil, but if it is the result of the irresponsible denuding of a drainage basin by lumberjacks, it is a moral evil. Similarly, depending on the circumstances, a maiming automobile crash may be either a natural evil or a moral evil. That species have disappeared in the evolutionary process cannot be called either a natural evil or a moral evil.