Bill Maher - "This is what I believe." Yeah, you believe it, and I'm going to say why it's dumb (2008)
Larry King: Back with Bill Maher. Catholic League President William Donohue says that you really have it out against Christians, and he'd love to duke it out with you in the ring. He's a very, very passionate Catholic, as you know.
Bill Maher: Oh yes, aren't they all? I used to be a Catholic. Yes, I saw that on Keith Olbermann's show. I thought he had the right response after the man threatened to beat me up: "just as Jesus would handle it."
Well, you know, I hope we can avoid a fight. If I'm attacked, I will defend myself.
King: You expect when "Religulous" comes out to get a lot of flack?
Maher: Yeah, but I get a lot of flack anyway. But, you know, that's been their trick for hundreds of years. They say the word "faith" and somehow we all have to back off and pretend that what they believe is not destructive. And, I won't do that. And there are millions of people who won't do that. The minority that is, what I would call rationalists, that is people who don't believe in something supernatural, something that was obviously fables that were written by men before men knew what a germ or an atom was. Okay, yes we're rationalist, that's like 20% of people under 30. That's a bigger minority than lots of minorities. They just don't speak up.
I'm hoping this movie and this movement will encourage people to speak up about this. They accuse me of being a Catholic bigot. First of all, I don't have it out especially for the Catholics. I think all religions are cuckoo, okay. It's not just the Catholics. But I'm not a bigot.
Just because I wish for the demise of an organization that I think is entirely destructive to the human race, that doesn't make me a bigot. I also wish for the demise of Hamas and the KKK. Not that on every score the Catholic Church is the same as those two organizations, but to me, they are destructive organizations and I'm not a bigot because I root for their downfall.
King: But you can't offend them.
Maher: I've been doing it for 15 years and they're perfectly within their rights to be offended. But they're not going to shut me up. And they're not going to do it by saying the magic word "faith.""
This is what I believe." Yeah, you believe it. And I'm going to say why it's dumb.
