is it possible that a belief in god is -?

Question

holding man back from maturing as a species that can see all as one?

any thoughts-smile and enjoy the day-thanks in advance for any answers

eight track patience never was one of my virtues

Answer 1

I think it is just part of the evolution of humanity. I also think that atheists are just impatient people, who want humans to evolve faster so we can stop killing in the name of a pixie

Answer 2

Very much so and I wish things would hurry up a bit. All this conflict can be nerve racking. The concept of god has to grow in people's minds. A lot of people are still in the dark ages with their idea of god. God has stagnated and they stopped growing. Ergo, god hasn't grown. He has grown in the minds of Atheists. Isn't that strange to say. lol It's like blood letting for a cure for illness to believe in god as a deity. The consciousness of many is expanding and making a bigger difference all the time. I am amazed at the changes in thinking for the most part, espcially in the last few years. People are waking up, but I don't think everyone will.

Answer 3

I think mankind is holding itself back. There was a lot of progression up until we hit the Dark Ages, then a thousand years of regression. The Renaissance and the Age of Enlightnement both brought about short periods of progression, which were both followed by conservation and regression. The late 19th Century was a progressive time for humanity as well as the 1920s, and the 1960s, but each of these had their own convervative back-ward moving backlashes. It's scarry to move forward toward Parousia, but even if we just take baby steps, we'll keep moving mankind forward.

Answer 4

More than possible...all one needs to do is look at the state of America's educational system in comparison to other countries, and then compare the level of religiosity to other Western countries (who, also do not use the death penalty, on a similar note), you'll see that faith could be holding us back to a disturbing degree....

Answer 5

If God doesn't exist, then yet, that would be detrimental to our development. If God does exist, then such a belief would be counterproductive.

So we are left with the question "Is there at least one God?"

This also closely relates to creation vs evolution, especially if one holds to Occam's razor.

my beliefs on creation stemm from my christian beliefs. at different times, i began to try to develop an understanding of "where we came from" that would unite both creation and evolution (e.g. long-day theory), but currently, i believe in the short-day theory (takes the explanation of creation from Genesis literally, understands that the days are 24 hour days, not millions of years like with the long-day theory).

i can't see any logical reason that i should believe that anything came from nothing, so i can't believe that there was a "primordial soup" from which the big bang could happen.

there are some that say if you convert all the matter in the universe into energy and total all of the energy, the total would equal zero, so in fact, nothing came from nothing. to this i say, what cause the nothing before to become this very elaborate nothing?

some believe there was a God or god-like Entity that set things into motion, but that that Entity didn't actually create us, specifically, but rather that we evolved from the basic universe that the Entity created. this is similar to saying that God/the Entity used evolution as a means of creation. I think that there is some truth to this, but not to the extent that i would have the same understanding of evolution as a true evolutionist.

i don't necessarily like basic major beliefs like where we came from on occam's razor, but in this case, if God was there to get things started, it seems most plausible, and most basic, that He created life very similar to how it is now.

the world is full of symbiosis, and many relationships aren't mere convenience, but rather necessity. for two or more things to evolve like this bumps the chances of such things to evolve much higher than if they weren't. e.g., on the evolutionary timeline, plants were around before insects. but how would plants that require insects for reproduction be able to survive?

the extreme complexity of a single human cell is astounding. the more we begin to understand how they work, the more we find how complex they really are. and as a result, our understanding of the complexity of a human as a whole increases.

such complexities make the possibility that we evolved from only something very basic extremely small. if we can take God as being necessary to start the process, why not believe that how would go further?

other problems i have with conventional evolution include the following:

evolutionary times are often times based on a misunderstanding of carbon-dating. likewise dinosaurs being in the belly of a dog-sized mammal and the variance in rock strata itself don't quite follow the current understanding of evolution. also, the sheer lack of links for all species; it's hard enough for us to find one missing link for humans and chimps, what about all the other missing links? we find some "potentials", but in doing so, we find many other things that have to be linked.

by some definitions, microevolution only deals with things in the sub-species realm. it would not include changes that could bring about a new genus within the same family (something that i do think happens). so in this case, i do believe in some macroevolution.

offspring of a mixture of species (mule, ligar/tigon, etc.) has been well documented, and while only very few are capable of reproduction, i think these still are proof that a step above evolution within a species is possible.

i believe in evolution from "biblical kinds," which i think roughly cuts off the evolutionary cycle at the family level (e.g. all dogs, wolves, foxes, etc. all evolved from two or a small group of "created" canidae animals). different beliefs are held as to the "cut-off" of biblical kinds (e.g. see this or this page attempt to better define what a biblical kind would be). most of the changes brought about by this would be through reproduction, though some changes would be brought about by more common evolutionary means (e.g. mutation or natural selection).

Answer 6

A belief in GOD adds a spiritual dimension that appently does not exist in atheism. I suppose that we are maturing as a "species".

GOD bless

Answer 7

No. You seem to have the prejudiced idea that there has never been a contribution of science, literature, technology, medicine, philosophy by the religious..You are very wrong. Please read history with an open mind. Look at the list of contributions from people of ALL beliefs..

Answer 8

My thoughts are that even if religion was gone, man as a whole would still not see "all as one". You will never get everyone to think the same way or believe the same way.

Answer 9

I think people are ignorant of others feelings without God being involved. I think God reminds us to be nice to eachother.

Answer 10

Absolutely!

Answer 11

NOT believing in God is holding us back.