Please understand that I can only give you my opinion.
IMHO, the difference between Sin and Evil is in the degree and intent.
While evil is always sinful, sin may not be evil.
We, whether Christian, Atheist, Agnostic or just about any other condition, are imperfect beings. Things like what you have mentioned, rage, envy, jealousy, anger, are unfortunately part of being human.
One of the things we all try to do, Atheist and Christian alike, is to not act on such thoughts. This goes back to my basis on the two commandments. Remember, the second commandment is a two parter, love others as you love yourself. That implies that you actually must love yourself and is an important consideration. It provides the standard, the baseline for behavior.
So within that set of bounds, we try not to do things that we would not want done to us.
If you look at one of the Prayers of Confession from the BCP, it reads as follows:
Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against thee
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved thee with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in thy will,
and walk in thy ways,
to the glory of thy Name. Amen.
Notice that it follows pretty much what I've been saying. It includes thoughts, words and deeds, things we have done and those we have left undone, love of GOD, others and ourselves.
But it also recognizes that we can and will try to do better.
Evil though is a willful disregard of all of that. It is actions without remorse, in fact taking pleasure in doing wrong with no intent to behave otherwise.
edited to add requesite spelling errors.
This message has been edited by jar, 08-11-2004 12:56 PM
Aslan is not a Tame Lion