The Problem of Good

[orangebox21]

You're making a category error here.  You're initial claim is that people do [morally] bad things.  Then you claim people do good things.  You list getting a new job, healing, and doing well on a test as good things.  But these are not [morally] good things.

Strictly speaking, you're correct here. The terms are conflated when I got lazy talking about two things. Still, it applies to my broader point involving the special pleading used by apologists where God gets praised for good things and we get blamed for bad things. It doesn't have to apply to only "moral" actions.

But even if you take those examples out, my main point still works. Bad moral actions are attributed to people (free will), but God still gets praised when people take morally good actions (such as generous charity). It's still special pleading and it's inconsistent. The closest thing you could get to a defense here would be to say something like "People are in control of their own actions, but I was also praising God because the person took the good action". In that case, why not praise God during bad actions, too?

Interestingly, Paul does praise God during the bad actions. He does so as a testimony for God's mercy , and also recognizing that Christ has delivered us from our sinful condition.

Read Romans 6-7 and Galatians 2-3.

If the good we do is not of ourselves, but rather Christ living within us, then it logically follows that God should get the glory for the good we do. And if we bear within ourselves a sinful nature, then we bear the blame for the bad we do. Special pleading is when an exemption is made without adequate justification. In this case the exemption: God is responsible when we do good, but not responsible when we do bad, is made because in one instance it is me acting, and in the other instance it is God acting.

I am still curious if you are speaking of libertarian or compatibilist free will.