The Christian God Does Violate Human Free Will

[Rhondazvous]

Some of the more esoteric franchises of theism try to get round this by creating a distinction between 'moral evil' and 'natural evil'.  For example, willful sinning (theft, adultery, murder, perjury, and so forth) are moral evils, because humans have the option to not engage in this behaviour.  When, on the other hand, your village of fisherfolk is buried in a mudslide, this is a natural evil, which means it was going to happen irrespective of human choice.

This has always struck me as pretty ad hoc.  If natural evils don't violate free will, then why do preachers of all stripes consign earthquakes, mudslides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and the like to 'God's will' or 'God's plan'?  If God plans for me to get struck by lightning, and God is the causative agent of moral law, then - not only is my free will violated - but the so called 'natural evil' immediately becomes 'moral evil'.  There is no effective difference between the two.

Boru

This is idiocy. The whole point of their argument is to absolve god from all responsibility and make humans responsible. The idea of natural evil defeats their whole purpose.

Oh wait, don't tell me. God is not responsible for natural evil because Paul says the creation was cursed for Adam's sake.

Like we say about Californians, if you build your house over a crack in the earth, it's your own fault.

We won't mention that holding me and the whole world responsible for someone else's sin is a violation of my free will in itself.