Today I was talking with Ivanna, my roommate, about God. She told me she sometimes feels guilty about not having "enough faith" and questioning her religion.

Since it's late, I'm going to limit myself to some of my basic ideas about God and what religions say our behavior should be according to "Him".

God exists to me. He's not like any of the Gods I've ever heard of from any book or religion. Or maybe, He's all of them put together. I don't know.

What I do know is that if He actually exists as He exists to me, Ivanna shouldn't feel bad about having doubts. To me, it seems like He doesn't punish nor judge us. He created us and gave us freedom to live as we wish (with everything that goes on around the world, there should be no question about that).

Religions have tried for a very long time and in all sorts of ways to control that freedom, to make coexistence possible. Also, they have provided us explanations to things that we will never understand and helped us overcome difficult times (well, at least they meant to until they somehow turned into the exact opposite, turning people against people instead of bringing them together, but that's a whole different subject).

We are all entitled to believe in God's existence or not to. Of course. But what everyone should believe in is the power of kindness. And don't think this is some kind of lecture; not at all:

The way I see it -at least right now- human beings are selfish. Not that this is a bad thing, we also have principles and kind feelings, but we are, above all, selfish- and that's undeniable. We go through life searching for happiness and pleasure and seeking to avoid pain and suffering: It's the way we are.

My point is: the only way to reach happiness is through kindness. I mean, you can go through life getting everything you think you want by the wrong ways, but even if you manage to get it, it wont make you happy. It's true!

I'm real sleepy and maybe I'm not making any sense, but what I think I mean is:

Whether we believe in the existence of God or not, we, as a human beings, want to be happy. The only way to reach happiness and self-achievement is through kindness: we shouldn't be good because someone said God said we should; we should be good and kind and honest because then we'll get what everyone wants and not many have: we'll be happy.

There. I've said it. I'm going to bed. Good night