Bill Gates (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world’s wealthiest people and the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2010, excluding 2007.
Gates was interviewed November 1995 on PBS by David Frost.
Frost: Do you believe in the Sermon on the Mount?
Gates: I don’t. I’m not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I’m a huge believer in. There’s a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very very positive impact.
Frost: I sometimes say to people, do you believe there is a god, or do you know there is a god? And, you’d say you don’t know?
Gates: In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don’t know if there’s a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid.
Despite being non-religious and not having a belief in any gods, Bill Gates is one of the the most generous philanthropists in the world. As of 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates were the second most generous philanthropists in America, having given over $28 billion to charity. In January this year, Bill Gates announced that he will donate a further $10 billion over the next decade to develop and deliver new vaccines to children in the developing world.
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March 22, 2010 at 7:35 pm
savannah
I take the same stance as Bill Gates when he says “I don’t KNOW if there’s a god or not…”.
But I do not think it should be concluded that he is “non-religious and not have a BELIEF in any gods” as you put it.
I think there is a difference between BELIEF and KNOWLEDGE. Perhaps he is agnostic and “takes a stance about the differences between belief and knowledge, rather than about any specific claim or belief”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism.
Besides he goes on further to say that “THE SPECIFIC ELEMENTS of Christianity are not something I’m a huge believer in.”
This again does not make him a non believer. The GENERAL belief in most religions is the belief in a God(s), it is the SPECIFICS that differentiate one religion from the other. So maybe he is not a Christian or Muslim or Buddhist, but that does not necessarily mean he does not believe in a God
March 23, 2010 at 7:22 am
phillip
interesting critique…. well at least he is not ‘RELIGIOUS’….
April 4, 2010 at 10:14 pm
James Onen
I’m inclined to think Bill Gates was just trying to be careful with words here. As the man behind Microsoft, I don’t think it would have been wise for him to come all out and say ‘Christianity is bullshit’ or ‘God is imaginary’. I mean, can you imagine by how many points Microsoft’s share value would fall if he actually said that? America is 85%+ Christian after all – let’s not forget that.
I think his response was his diplomatic way of wiggling out of the rather uncomfortable questions he was being asked🙂 His dilly-dallying while answering the questions makes this rather obvious.
March 30, 2010 at 7:24 pm
phillip
😉
April 4, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Ciyaalka Xaafadda
Great site. I enjoy reading your site and find it informative. I also run a Somali atheist site and welcome fellow Africans who reject organized religion, its oppression and violence.
Cheers!🙂
SomaliAtheism.blogspot.com
April 4, 2010 at 10:22 pm
James Onen
Thanks for visiting our blog Ciyaalka.
I’ve just checked out yours also – fascinating stuff! It is indeed interesting to hear about non-belief from an Islamic perspective. Most of us here were Christians, and so Christian doctrine is what we are most familiar with, and what is mostly discussed here. Your blog will therefore serve as an excellent resource for those from an Islamic background that are starting to question their faith.
Religious fundamentalism has wreaked unbelievable havoc in your country – it is therefore truly admirable what you are doing. Please keep it up!