Stephen Colbert’s November 2015 interview with Bill Maher became a pointed debate about faith, evidence and religion’s influence—not a neutral exchange or an objectively ranked “best” interview. Colbert, a practicing Catholic, urged Maher, a former Catholic and outspoken atheist, to return to the church. Maher rejected the appeal. Contemporary coverage described the conversation as tense or slightly heated.
Who was Colbert debating?
The guest was Bill Maher, the host of HBO’s Real Time. This was not Colbert’s later 2017 conversation with Ricky Gervais about whether God exists. The distinction matters because the two exchanges are sometimes conflated: the 2015 interview centered on Maher’s criticism of religion and Colbert’s Catholic faith. The Los Angeles Times’ November 17, 2015 report and The Guardian’s video page identify Maher as Colbert’s guest.
What made the exchange intense?
The interview took place shortly after the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. In that context, Maher argued that countering groups such as the Islamic State required challenging ideas he believed extended beyond extremist organizations. Colbert shifted the conversation toward religion and asked whether Maher had subjects he would avoid discussing. Maher replied that they were “very opposite” on religion. The Los Angeles Times described the discussion as tense, while The Guardian called it “slightly heated”; those are journalistic characterizations, not a measurable rating of the interview’s intensity.
Colbert’s invitation and Maher’s response
Colbert makes a personal appeal
Colbert identified himself as a practicing Catholic and invited Maher, who had once been Catholic, to return to the church. In the wording reported by Meredith Blake of the Los Angeles Times, Colbert said: “Come on back, Bill,” he said. “The door is always open. Golden ticket, right before you. All you have to do is humble yourself before the presence of the Lord and admit there are things greater than you in the universe that you do not understand. Take Pascal’s wager. If you’re wrong, you’re an idiot, but if I’m right, you’re going to hell.”
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Maher challenges faith as an explanation
Maher said he accepted that there were things he did not understand, but rejected faith as the answer. As reported in the same Los Angeles Times article, he responded: “I do admit there are things in the universe I don’t understand, but my response to that is not to just make up silly stories, or to believe intellectually embarrassing myths from the Bronze Age, but you believe whatever you want to.”
Colbert framed religion as a connection to his ancestors. Maher countered that people in earlier eras lacked modern scientific knowledge, saying: “These were men who did not know what a germ or an atom was or where the sun went at night.” The exchange put their disagreement in concrete terms: for Colbert, faith could be meaningful despite uncertainty; for Maher, uncertainty did not justify accepting religious claims he considered unsupported. The quotations above are reproduced as documented by the Los Angeles Times.
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Was it really one of the best Late Show interviews?
“One of the best” is an opinion, not an established ranking. The contemporary coverage cited here reports the clash and its context, but does not provide a ranking, audience figure or comparative measure that proves it was among the show’s best interviews. Its appeal is easier to understand as a matter of taste: a celebrity interview turned into a direct disagreement between a host willing to discuss his own religious commitment and a guest willing to criticize religious belief.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the interview still stands out
Colbert did not treat Maher’s atheism as a throwaway punchline, and Maher did not soften his objections to spare the host. Their humor and direct challenges made the conversation sharper, while the immediate post-Paris context gave Maher’s argument about religious ideas a pressing backdrop. The result was a late-night interview in which the disagreement itself—not a shared conclusion—was the point.
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