Opening Question:
If you could be a Disney hero/heroine, who would you be?
Simba - 1
Aladdin - 6
Shrek - 1
Beast - 1
Mickey Mouse - 1
Robin Hood - 1
Bambi - 1
Dumbo - 1
Prince Charming - 1
Sleeping Beauty - 1
Mulan - 1
Areal - 1
Pocahantas - 1
Bell - 1
Tinkerbell - 1
Cinderella - 1
Maid Marian - 1
Jasmine - 1

Discussion:
Was the hurricane evil, an evil thing to happen, not that it chose evil?

New Orleans is built in a buffer region so that is what was suppose to happen to protect the rest of the US from hurricane's so it can't be an evil.

For evil to exist doesn't there have to be an option for good, and the hurricane wasn't making any choices.

Hurricanes and the like would not happen though if it were not for original sin, so they have to evil or a result of evil somehow.

Worrying whether the hurricane was "an evil" takes the focus off of what are doing right now to help. The absence of God is evil. There is so much outreach that God is present in, so many people tried to help others while some took up crime.

The hurricane is not evil it just exposed a lot of weaknesses that we have as a country.

Active will vs. Permissive will: There is a difference between God allowing something to happen and God willing something to happen. You can say an evil thing happened without saying God willed it to happen.

Because of man's sin the entire universe is out of whack (and that's why the aliens are trying to kill us).
Is evil the absence of good, or the absence of God? The absence of good, but all good comes from God so there is still some ties.

Humans are never fully in harmony with God or good, so doesn't that mean that humans are evil because they have some absence there? There is a large difference between the capacity to do evil and being evil.

Evil is the total absence of God. Humans have the ability to do evil but are not necessarily evil in themselves.

As humans we are journeying towards the perfection and many fall along the way.

Humans have to take the consequences for their actions. The hurricane wouldn't have been evil if it hadn't hurt anyone or destroyed anything; it's just that people moved into where the hurricane was going to end up going.

Humans in the end though don't need to take the consequences for the evil that they commit because Jesus has made that sacrifice for us already.

The hurricane was evil because it wasn't part of God's original plan for us. At some point in creation man did choose to sin and that is the fall.

It's not that Mother Nature is out to get us, but that things like these are the consequences for original sin.

Because man's relationship with God was broken then man's relationship with nature was broken too.

Maybe the Genesis story reflects on each person individually at this very moment, you are in harmony with god you won't see the evil in the world, rather than being a specific event in the past.

The books of Moses have been assumed to be poetry, although it may have significant historical significance. Before some point there wasn't sin and then after that point there was. The books try to tell the "why", not the "how".

Could the fall be when humans developed a conscience and decided to sin?

Definition of evil is not necessarily a complete separation from God that's Hell; evil is the means to that end.

Hell is the perpetual after death turning away from God.

"Evil is the illusion of a shortcut to God." Everyone wants to love and be loved, but when you think there is a easier way of doing it that usually when evil is involved.

You are always partially separated from God and partially separated from evil.

What is evil?

Is there truth before God told us something was true or is something true because God says it to be so? If there is truth first that there is defined truth, if not it's only evil to do what God says not to do.

Evil is something that can hurt someone else or yourself.
What is hurting? Is it pain, pain is not necessarily evil, sometimes pain is used for good.

It's not evil if it's causing you to love outside of yourself. Sanctifying Grace is the creative force that holds everything in existence, and is caused by God loving outside of the Trinity.

What is the most evil thing you can think of?
- Rape, Civilian warfare (collateral damage), taking an innocent life, raping the earth, abortion

Everyone's definition of evil is defiling something that God has declared precious.