Patrick Cole reports, “Atheist Robert Wilson Gives N.Y. Catholic Schools $5.6 Million”:
Retired hedge fund titan Robert W. Wilson lost his faith in God years ago, yet he believes in Catholic schools and gave $5.6 million to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York this summer…
“Most of what the Catholic schools teach are the three Rs,” said Wilson…referring to reading, writing and arithmetic…
Wilson, a Detroit native, said he began questioning the existence of God after enrolling in Amherst College in Massachusetts to study economics.
“Religious people say you couldn’t have our surrounding environment without the Creator, but then who created the Creator?” Wilson said…
“I’ve told him I look forward to the day when you’ll say that you’re not an atheist,” Egan [Edward Cardinal Egan, New York’s archbishop from 2000 to 2009] said. “He said, ‘And if you succeed, you’d be out of a job.’”
It may be true that Most of what the Catholic schools teach are the three Rs but then again most schools teach the three Rs so why support Catholic schools? I suspect it is that they are founded upon Judeo-Christian principles and, believe it or not, that does make a difference.
I do not know how many “years ago” it was that he “lost his faith in God” but asking questions such as “who created the Creator?” implies a very shallow philosophy, un-nurtured logic and, one may imagine, being pleased with an alternative that is even more problematic for; the universe surely is here and how did it come to be, why is there something at all rather than nothing whatsoever? From here, atheists generally rely on the it just is of the gaps. Consider the following: It is ignorant and superstitious to believe that God made everything out of nothing.
It is rational and scientific to believe that nothing made everything out of nothing.
It is ignorant and superstitious to believe that God is eternal.
It is rational and scientific to believe that matter (or energy) is eternal.
God is an effect and must have had a cause.
Matter/energy is the uncaused first cause.
If God made everything, then who made God?
Matter made everything and nothing made matter.
As for the Cardinal being out of a job; I suspect that, in that sense, true Christians would love to be unemployed.