Is God good?

I've just finished an exercise of re-watching Deep Space 9 on NetFlix. There were gaps in my original viewing that needed to be filled.In the Dominion, the ruling species, known as The Founders, was seen as gods by their subjects. Their genetically-engineered warriors, the Jem-hadar, were commanded by the genetically-engineered Vorta, the administrators of the Dominion's dominion. After the Cardassians joined the Dominion, there was a conversation between the Cardassian leader, Damar, and the Vorta, Weyoun. Weyoun was scoffing at the Bajoran's religious belief in The Prophets (non-corporeals who had an interest in Bajor, "lived" within the near-by worm-hole, and experienced time in a very non-linear fashion), basically saying that those aren't gods and the Bajorans are being stupidly superstitious. Damar compares that with The Founders and Weyoun's expression becomes deadly-serious as he says coldly, "But the Founders are gods!"Similarly, circa 1979 I was sitting reading in the rec center of an Air Force base waiting to report for a detail to which I had been assigned. It was Saturday morning and some completely idiotic sports thing was on (much more idiotic than a professional or college game, if you can believe that) and somebody asked if they could change the channel. So now the TV was changed to a tel-evangelist show. The TV preacher offered a scenario wherein the audience member/viewer was a member of an inter-faith conference involving all the worlds religions. Furthermore, you were to present your arguments to the rest of that conference why the Bible was superior to all the rest. Your argument was obvious and simple: The Bible is the Word of God Himself!My jaw literally dropped at that point. What an audaciously ludicrous thing to say! Any truly believing member of a religious group would have said the equivalent. All of them have some kind of divine origin for their religions and for their sacred texts. All are equal in that regard. A fundamentalist Christian's claims about the Bible are no different! The Emperor is directly descended from Amaterasu, the Sun-Goddess! The complete imperial genealogy has been written down! Christian bogus claims are meaningless in the face of the Truth of Amaterasu!I looked about in that room and immediately saw that most had taken no notice at all, which the few who were actually paying any kind of attention were just lapping that swill up. More than a decade later, and more than a decade ago, on a Yahoo Groups forum a creationist finally gave me the key of understanding. He had just re-made some PRATTs (mind you, this was before I had learned that acronym) and I asked him in a very straight-forward manner why he had to use such unconvincing claims and arguments. His eye-opening response was: "You do not find my claims convincing, because you are not yet convinced."So then, if you are already convinced, then you will accept just about any lame claim without questioning it. Any kind of swill, just so long as it argues for what you are already convinced. It does not matter how nonsensical it is, just so long as it says that it supports what you are already convinced about. That is what I read Faith's approach to be.Will you question it in any manner? Will you even bother to examine it? Will you even bother to question whether you understand it or not? That is completely contrary to Faith's approach, as I understand it.My own church (Unitarian-Universalist) has an anti-authoritarian slogan attached to it that is actually quite useful: To Question is the Answer. Our church also has an adult religious-education program: "Inventing Your Own Theology." Even a fundamentalist Christian co-worker has affirmed that that is what they also must do. Oh, you can proclaim as loudly as you possibly can that you adhere absolutely to this particular theology, but when it comes down to brass tacks what you proclaim is an impossibility. The absolute best that you could ever do would be to adhere to your own personal best understanding and misunderstanding of that target theology. But just exactly how good is that? To Question is the Answer. Question your theology, always! Because your own personal theology is flawed. Because your understanding of the theology you actually want to practice is imperfect and flawed. Question your theology, always! Because in doing so you are never questioning God (whatever that is supposed to mean!), but rather your own imperfect misunderstanding.And if you truly believe that your beliefs and understanding is perfect, then you could not possibly ever be more lost!