If God's Good, What's Up With Evil?

Everything I Know About the Philosophical Problem of Evil and Defenses Against It

Many of you know me as the YouTube Notebook Czar thanks to my ParkNotes YT channel (a few people called me the Notebook Czar here and there and I decided to lean into it, “notebook Czar” has a nice ring to it). Others of you know me as a philosophy and theology podcaster from my podcast Parker’s Pensées. And still others know me as a philosophy guy from my publication here on Substack.

But on top of that stuff, for the past 11 years I’ve also worked for a Christian ministry called Athletes In Action in Chicagoland. I primarily work with wrestlers but I’ve also become a kind of answer man for the ministry at large, which includes something like 8 to 11 college campuses in the area. It’s a pretty sweet gig, a bunch or really cool college athletes, Christian or otherwise, bring me their toughest questions about God, life, Christianity, family, faith, the simulation hypothesis, and much more, and I get to help them think through their own answers.

I love my role with AIA! God used this ministry to change my life when I was a college wrestler and I love being able to play that role for others now.

One of my roles with AIA is to lead what we call “Training Tables” for our student leaders. Training Tables are a time for us to get our student leaders from all of our different campuses together and help equip them to answer tough topics—like the problem of evil: if God is so good, why is there evil?

Last night we hosted our Spring Training Table and the topic actually was the problem of evil. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this problem in my own self-study and then in my 2 theology Master’s degrees, and then some more in my philosophy of religion Master’s degree afterwards. So I went full knowledge dump on the student leaders last night and decided to record it as bonus content for my paid subscribers here on Substack and also on Patreon and YouTube members. The audio is not the best because my lapel mic cut off but you should still be able to hear me. I’m also including the full packet I made for the students to study with 12 forms of the problem of evil and 15 or 16 defenses against problems of evil. I’m fleshing it out a bit more for my paid audience here on Substack as well in case the audio is too bad for you and you just want to read instead.

So if you’re interested in listening to my talk, reading my detailed outline, or both then upgrade to paid here.

Also, if you want to learn about more about my ministry with Athletes In Action, then check out my give page with a bit of my story here: Parker’s Cru/AIA Ministry Page and consider becoming a monthly ministry partner or giving a one time gift to help me buy my guys Bibles or send them to AIA summer camps (all donations to my AIA ministry are charitable donations and tax deductible but becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack is not).

So let’s jump in with the Problem(s) of Evil.