David Silverman Goes on the 'Factor'

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," March 23, 2004 that has been edited for clarity.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In our "Personal story" segment tonight, this month a new political action committee opened up in Washington. The Godless Americans now have a lobbying group. With us now is the national spokesman for the Godless Americans political action committee, David Silverman.

Thank God, the Godless Americans now have a PAC.

DAVID SILVERMAN, GODLESS AMERICANS, INC.: Well, I couldn't agree with you more, except for the first part.

O'REILLY: Yes, all right, but you're not really thanking the deity for it?

SILVERMAN: No.

O'REILLY: OK. Let's walk through this here.

SILVERMAN: Sure.

O'REILLY: Atheists have been around. They got American Atheist Society. What's the difference between the Godless Americans and the atheists?

SILVERMAN: Well, Godless Americans is much farther encompassing. A lot of people are nonreligious, godless, in other words, who call themselves agnostics, humanists, skeptics. Some even call themselves Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims. And there's very, very little voice in Congress for it. In fact, there's absolutely no voice in Congress. There are no representatives in the national or even at the state level, who will openly admit to being...

O'REILLY: Godless.

SILVERMAN: Godless.

O'REILLY: Right. And I don't think you're going to be able to change that, are you? And...

SILVERMAN: Yes, we fully intend to change it.

O'REILLY: Yes.

SILVERMAN: Over time. It's going to be a long...

O'REILLY: You have certain politicians that you feel as susceptible to being godless?

SILVERMAN: We have certain politicians that at least are susceptible to being...

O'REILLY: Heathens.

SILVERMAN: No, we're not even looking for godless. We're looking for...

O'REILLY: All right. Can you give me a name of a...

SILVERMAN: No, no.

O'REILLY: Oh! You know...

SILVERMAN: I'm not going to give you any names.

O'REILLY: Well, wait a minute. You're going to have a -- you're going to have a kind of a hard time lobbying if you're not going to tell...

SILVERMAN: We are...

O'REILLY: ... anybody who you're going to lobby.

SILVERMAN: We fully intend to give names after we get official opinions from all of them.

O'REILLY: OK. So you're going to give us...

SILVERMAN: So after we...

O'REILLY: ... the names of the...

SILVERMAN: Oh, absolutely.

O'REILLY: ... of the godless politicians...

SILVERMAN: We are.

O'REILLY: ... because I want that list.

SILVERMAN: So do I.

O'REILLY: I want to know who the godless people are.

SILVERMAN: I want to show you that list, and...

O'REILLY: OK.

SILVERMAN: And, right now, unfortunately, the -- a number of politicians in this country, who are sympathetic to our cause, even if they're not godless -- we don't care if they're godless or not. We just care that they listen to the godless population. There are about 30 million of us nationwide.

O'REILLY: I listen to the godless population.

SILVERMAN: You do, but you're...

O'REILLY: I do.

SILVERMAN: ... not a politician, unfortunately, Bill.

O'REILLY: I feel your pain.

SILVERMAN: You do, huh?

O'REILLY: I do.

SILVERMAN: And why is that?

O'REILLY: Well, because you're all going to hell.

SILVERMAN: Ah, well...

O'REILLY: I mean, you know, it's rough. If you're godless, you have no shot, you know.

SILVERMAN: Yes, we have no shot, but you know what...

O'REILLY: All right. To be serious, though, you're -- this is a PAC which...

SILVERMAN: This is a PAC.

O'REILLY: ... in Washington means that you guys are going to go in and support Michael Newdow and these other nuts running around, trying to strip society of any spirituality at all.

SILVERMAN: Well, that's not quite accurate, but yes.

O'REILLY: Well, that's what they're trying to do. So you're going to support -- you're going to raise money for these people and...

SILVERMAN: We're going to raise money. We're going to organize voting blocks. We're going to make the nonreligious population a voting block. We're going to...

O'REILLY: All right. Now just so everybody knows, the nonreligious population in the United States is about 30 million, less than 10 percent - - or about 10 percent.

SILVERMAN: Yes. Far more than there are Jews. Far more than there are most sects of Christianity.

O'REILLY: Yes. I mean that's a fairly hefty godless group, but it's not going to get anybody elected. I think you're going to run into a stone wall on the Hill. Nobody is going to hang with you.

SILVERMAN: And you know what? Twenty years ago, the gays ran into a stone wall as well, but, over time, they chipped away at the wall, and that's exactly what we're going to do.

O'REILLY: Absolutely. In 50 years, we could be a bunch of...

SILVERMAN: We don't want to make anybody godless. We just want to make everybody tolerant of godless people.

O'REILLY: Tolerant of godless people.

SILVERMAN: Tolerant of godless people. Understanding of our position. We don't want to convert anybody to atheism. We don't want to make this an atheist country.

O'REILLY: No, but what you want to do...

SILVERMAN: We don't want to strip God out of the public square.

O'REILLY: Sure you do.

SILVERMAN: No, we want...

O'REILLY: Oh, don't give me that. If you're for Newdow and you're for that kind of -- how about Christmas holiday? Do you want...

SILVERMAN: We want to separate church and state.

O'REILLY: How about -- Christmas holiday is a federal holiday. Do you want to take Christmas holiday off the calendar?

SILVERMAN: Do we want to take it off the calendar?

O'REILLY: Yes.

SILVERMAN: No, we want to make it a religious holiday. It is a religious holiday. We are...

O'REILLY: No, it's a federal holiday.

SILVERMAN: We agree with the very religious folks on that. It should be a religious holiday.

O'REILLY: All right. So you would -- you have no problem calling it Christmas holiday.

SILVERMAN: I would have no problem calling it a Christmas holiday. I don't think it should be a federal holiday, and in the meantime...

O'REILLY: So you'd try to roll back the federal holiday?

SILVERMAN: In the meantime, what we're trying to do...

O'REILLY: Well, wait a minute. You're dancing here. Are you going to try to roll back the federal holiday?

SILVERMAN: That's not one of your immediate goals.

O'REILLY: That's not one of your immediate...

SILVERMAN: It's not one of our immediate goals. One of our immediate goals is...

O'REILLY: But taking "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance -- you're down with that.

SILVERMAN: We're down with that.

O'REILLY: Yes. We don't want any God in...

SILVERMAN: Yes, we're down with taking it back out of the...

O'REILLY: ... the Pledge of Allegiance.

SILVERMAN: ... Pledge of Allegiance.

O'REILLY: All right. "In God We Trust" -- are you going to whip that off the money?

SILVERMAN: Don't think we have that power, but, yes, we would.

O'REILLY: You would if you could.

SILVERMAN: We would in a second because it's an incorrect statement.

O'REILLY: All right.

SILVERMAN: We don't trust in God. You may.

O'REILLY: Right.

SILVERMAN: Most of us may, but we do not.

O'REILLY: But you know -- you know, Mr. Silverman, I respect you for not that, and I would like to have all the money that you really don't want. Would you give it to me now?

SILVERMAN: No, no. I'm going to keep...

O'REILLY: No, you won't.

SILVERMAN: ... all of the money.

O'REILLY: All right. There you go. Well, we wish the Godless Americans -- because we, of course, believe in freedom of speech, you know...

SILVERMAN: And people can find out about us...

O'REILLY: ... Godspeed.

SILVERMAN: ... at gampac.org.

O'REILLY: All right. There you go. I'm sure you'll be overwhelmed.

SILVERMAN: Thank you.

O'REILLY: Mr. Silverman, thanks very much.

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