I just want to pose a question to everyone out here. I want to ask you
Does the idea of a God, or some sort of force omnipotent or creator in the universe, hold us back as a species?
My personal belief is that the idea of a God-force holds humanity back, because it means that life is a level playing field. Without a God, it basically renders life into a one-off experience, where those who are unlucky, will die and have to survive through a horrid life, and those who are lucky, or abuse other humans will succeed. It's comforting to think that even though most average people in countries like Afghanistan and South Sudan have to go through horrible hardships, they will go to heaven afterwards and have eternal happiness. With this kind of believe, people don't feel as though they have to work hard to change our world so that people do not have to suffer.
I want your guys opinions on this. I'm not trying to make a thread about the existence of God, so if you personally think there is a God, then incorporate that into your post, and if you don't, then incorporate that into your post. Don't debate about the existence of God, just talk about your beliefs in if God holds us back from achieving something greater as a species, or if it does help believers become better people.

We are not hold back, we are quite evolved. Our orgasmic system has been designed pretty intelligent.
Unfortunately our system can't fix all the problems, thats why we use science.
God does exist, but You should not believe in all this relegious bullcrap. They only want to scare you.

I actually don't believe this holds us back, as an atheist I hold life to be our one chance, but I never see theists acting all that differently except in very rare cases such as suicide bombings. If you believed that death would bring you to a place of eternal happiness wouldn't you want to die? Turns out the answer is no, people like living, naturally, it's probably instinctual.

so from what you say Vox you dont belive in heaven and hell?
cause i dam do it make lifeworth living cause you work for a goal not being just
a mindless meat sack.

The only way i feel held back is that I have to set aside an hour every sunday to go to church.
I feel more held back by work, college and society in general.
No i do not feel held back because I believe in God.
Christianity is as much a moral code as anything else. One that is often accepted by athiests and theists alike.

If you dont believe in God, then you should not feel held back by him, or the idea of him.
discussion over.

If you want to make all theists out as "mindless meat sacks" go do it somewhere else.
The nonsense you provided as discussion material is just impossible to understand.

No I don't believe in any religious or theistic concepts, I also believe life is worth living. Afterlife concepts while nice to believe in for the sake of avoiding the fear of death, belittle life by making it effectively a test to see what afterlife you get, this seems both vein and ignorant to me, as it implies both that humans have some special system in place that gets them extra time to live, and that they are only worth as much as the afterlife they get into.

Still my point is that whatever you believe on this subject, people tend to act in favour of self preservation, and in that light they live the life they want to, which is all you can hope for. Theists who have miss fortunate lives may find salvation in the idea of a God and wish to impress them in this life, atheists in similar circumstances may find a similar salvation in a strong work ethic or the will to make the best of this life.