"And Atheists like you think they have the world figured out"
I'm not exactly Professor Stephen Hawking, nor the scientists at CERN (home of the soon-to-be-God-Killer, the LHC), but once the former completes his Unified Field Theory (coupled with the findings from the latter) and the results published, we will have the world - and the universe - figured out.
Because that's what science has been doing since Galileo - DESTROYING the bunkum, stupidity & superstition of religious 'Faith'. Once, religion (via Roman Catholicism) had almost absolute power over nations. Just as Right-wing Fundy Xtianity is holding on by it's fingernails to America. But science throughout the last few centuries has been whittling away that power (and religions have to resort to 'moving the goalposts', just to make 'Faith' even slightly relevant to such), to the extent that religions have to resort to emotional blackmail with threats of 'Hellfire', just to maintain some semblance of control over people. And that's what religion is all about: POWER. And CONTROLLING people. But these days, reason and rational (indeed, CRITICAL) thinking rules the world, and because of people THINKING FOR THEMSELVES, they don't allow themselves to be infected with the cancer of religion (can't say the same for those who don't possess critical thinking, nor the ability to think for yourself. Some are easily deluded; to quote P.T. Barnum: 'A sucker is born every minute.').
Religion has been holding the world back indeed. Certainly the parts of the world where they're clinging to the last vestiges of power. Not the UK though (thank goodness for Richard Dawkins, and the British sense of irony, and cynicism. We'll never have any of those Fundy nutty buggers infecting our country, as they have America!). Recently, our Parliament rejected a ban on Stem Cell research. So, outside of China & Cuba, we'll be at the forefront of groundbreaking research into a myriad of cures for cancers etc. That's TRUE Separation of Church & State. We don't allow religion to dictate political policy. Thus we're not being held back by religion - because it has NO RIGHT TO.
I trust you'll remember that, US Fundies, on the plane to Britain for that vital Gene Therapy to cure that terminal disease. Unless America elects an ATHEIST president, who'll crack down on the Religious Right, removing all their political influence completely. Only then will USA advance fully.