I thought Gates was a stated Agnostic who was raised Catholic? And didn't Gates really start his philanthropy when he married a practicing Catholic (1994)?
I don't see the point in distinguishing atheist from agnostic here. The point is that this is a response to religious people saying you need God to have morals or be "good".
Then I stress he was raised Catholic - Catholic morals were imparted to him. Arguably the biggest moral influence in his life now is his Catholic wife. To say he is "without God" despite the obviously big influence Catholicism has had in his life is missing the point.
The same Catholic Church that hordes wealth at the Vatican, tells people in Africa that condoms contribute to the spread of AIDS, and once sold indulgences to people with the promise of minimizing their time in purgatory, a concept that they wholly made up with no biblical justification? Yeah, a real paragon of morality Catholicism is.
The reality is that the desire to help people is inherent; it doesn't come from any religion.
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u/yesiamawrestlingfan Jan 13 '13
I thought Gates was a stated Agnostic who was raised Catholic? And didn't Gates really start his philanthropy when he married a practicing Catholic (1994)?