Bill Gates

---
name: "Bill Gates"
relatedPeople:
  - "warren-buffett"
  - "matt-damon"
  - "paul-newman"
  - "steve-jobs"
date: "2012-02-24"
sources:
  - sourceTitle: "Bill Gates Speaks: Insights from the World's Greatest Entrepreneur"
    sourceUrl: "http://books.google.com/books?id=LUwu-DTwa5cC&pg=PA3&dq=Congregationalist++bill+gates&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false"
  - sourceTitle: "Great Non-Believers: Bill Gates"
    sourceUrl: "http://jewishatheist.blogspot.com/2006/01/great-non-believers-bill-gates.html"
  - sourceTitle: "Bill Gates"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.celebatheists.com/wiki/Bill_Gates"
  - sourceTitle: "Bill Gates Tops Steve Jobs in Political Donations; Microsoft Outspends Apple Inside the Beltway"
    sourceUrl: "http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/01/bill_gates_tops_steve_jobs_in.php"
  - sourceTitle: "Biography of Bill Gates, Campaign Contributions"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.campaignmoney.com/biography/bill_gates.asp"
  - sourceTitle: "Bill Gates' Federal Campaign Contribution Report"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.newsmeat.com/billionaire_political_donations/Bill_Gates.php"
  - sourceTitle: "50 Bill Gates Quotes on Life, Wealth and Leadership"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.investinganswers.com/education/famous-investors/50-quotes-wealthiest-man-america-3088"
summaries:
  religion: "Gates was born into a Protestant Christian church, but is now conclusively an agnostic. We may be able to even consider him a scientist."
  politicalViews: "Gates is very concerned with a variety of social issues including 3rd world development, disease, poverty, and the environment. Three political campaign donation reports were analyzed--all with discrepancies regarding the amount Gates has donated, but two of them say he's given slightly more to Democrats, so we're going with Democrat."
---

Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington where he still lives and his software giant company, Microsoft, is headquartered.

Growing up, his family attended a Congregationalist church, a now-extinct version of Protestantism.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DLUwu-DTwa5cC%26pg%3DPA3%26dq%3DCongregationalist%2B%2Bbill%2Bgates%26hl%3Den%23v%3Donepage%26q%26f%3Dfalse" title="Bill Gates Speaks: Insights from the World&apos;s Greatest Entrepreneur">[1]</a>

Now, Gates doesn't seem too interested in religion. He doesn't believe anything without evidence. He was once asked about the human soul, and he replied:

>I don't have any evidence on that.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fjewishatheist.blogspot.com%2F2006%2F01%2Fgreat-non-believers-bill-gates.html" title="Great Non-Believers: Bill Gates">[2]</a>

This is a standard agnostic view and would seem hard to disprove. Gates, like many agnostics, would rather look to science for answers. In the same interview, Gates said:

>In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.celebatheists.com%2Fwiki%2FBill_Gates" title="Bill Gates">[3]</a>

This doesn't mean Gates is down on religion or thinks religion is stupid or pointless. He's said:

>There's a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very very positive impact.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.celebatheists.com%2Fwiki%2FBill_Gates" title="Bill Gates">[4]</a>

But he does think it's kind of a waste of time:

>Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.celebatheists.com%2Fwiki%2FBill_Gates" title="Bill Gates">[5]</a>

## Let's not talk about it, let's just throw money at it

Politically, Gates is a bit mysterious. He hasn't gone on record very often in support of or against a political candidate or cause so I can't say he puts his money where his mouth is. But he definitely spends a lot of money on causes he believes in.

If we must put Gates into the political spectrum, though, we must look to the money he's given to political campaigns. However, there are discrepancies. One report has Gates' political donations from 2002 to 2012 at almost $442,000–with most, but not all of that went to Republicans.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.seattleweekly.com%2Fdailyweekly%2F2011%2F01%2Fbill_gates_tops_steve_jobs_in.php" title="Bill Gates Tops Steve Jobs in Political Donations; Microsoft Outspends Apple Inside the Beltway">[6]</a>

Another has Gates' political donations from 1999 to 2012 at almost $436,000, with roughly 8% more going to Democrats.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.campaignmoney.com%2Fbiography%2Fbill_gates.asp" title="Biography of Bill Gates, Campaign Contributions">[7]</a>

[Newsmeat.com](http://newsmeat.com ) (my favorite) has Gates' political contributions from 1986 to 2011 at a little more than $418,000, with slightly more going to Democrats.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsmeat.com%2Fbillionaire_political_donations%2FBill_Gates.php" title="Bill Gates&apos; Federal Campaign Contribution Report">[8]</a> So, something fishy is going on there, but we'll go with Democrat. It's 2 out of 3.

Perhaps Gates doesn't say much about U.S. politics because, as the big-picture thinker that he is, he sees beyond borders. He once said:

>I do think this next century, hopefully, will be about a more global view. Where you don't just think, 'Yes, my country is doing well,' but you think about the world at large.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.investinganswers.com%2Feducation%2Ffamous-investors%2F50-quotes-wealthiest-man-america-3088" title="50 Bill Gates Quotes on Life, Wealth and Leadership">[9]</a>

## So, people should be mean?

On a grand social level, Gates thinks people should be more like computers. It's actually quite disturbing. Anyway:

>You see, antiquated ideas of kindness and generosity are simply bugs that must be programmed out of our world. And these cold, unfeeling machines show us the way.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.investinganswers.com%2Feducation%2Ffamous-investors%2F50-quotes-wealthiest-man-america-3088" title="50 Bill Gates Quotes on Life, Wealth and Leadership">[10]</a>

Charlie Latham

Political Affiliations

Climate Change

Race

Environment

Taxation

Wealth Inequality

Privacy

Corporations and Government

Fact about the Corporations and Government views of Bill Gates

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