Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, recently revealed that his family goes to Catholic Church while also admitting his doubts about God.
“The moral systems of religion, I think, are superimportant. We’ve raised our kids in a religious way; they’ve gone to the Catholic church that Melinda goes to and I participate in,” Gates said in an interview with Rolling Stone for the March 27 issue. “I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief.”
When asked if he believed in God, the 58-year-old billionaire said, “I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.”
But he also said he agrees “with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths.”
He explains: “Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm—not all—that religion used to fill. But the mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there’s no scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers, that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view [laughs].”
Gates recently regained his spot as richest man in the world in Forbes’ 2014 list of billionaires, reaching a reported $76 billion.
The former CEO of Microsoft stepped down from his role in 2000 to focus on charity work with the organization he founded that year with his wife, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The foundation, which is ranked as one of the most generous in the world, donates at least $1.5 billion a year to various causes around the world.
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