This, what I call a paradox, is a major irreconcilable difference between myself and some religious people, especially Christians. If you have faith that God is all good, then you are presupposing that whatever God does must be good. If you personally disagree with God then it must be your moral compass that’s wrong. In this situation it is literally impossible to distinguish a benevolent God from a malevolent one (or even one that acts randomly). It’s a paradox because you must use your own judgment to decide that God is good, even though your own judgment could be contradicted by the actions of God.

This is more than a small problem as God does do morally questionable things in the Bible, including ordering the slaughter of children. Outside of that, we have the problem of evil, with no one actually able to rationalize the existence of evil in the world beyond “God works in mysterious ways.” This can cause cognitive dissonance for religious people. It is perhaps more consistent with the way the world is to believe something like Gnosticism, where the physical world was created by an evil demiurge. Christians sometimes point to Satan being the ruler of this world, which in my opinion doesn’t work. First, I don’t find it convincing from a Biblical standpoint. Additionally, everything that happens, from the Fall of Man to the actions of Satan, must be under the control of an omni-God who is ultimately responsible for the state of the universe.