And just before coming to your press conference, I was delayed in an interview with Attorney General Frohnmeyer. I have told him that now, there is no point in your case against the city of Rajneeshpuram. His only argument was that religion and state are being mixed. Now there is no religion! So while you were burning Rajneeshism, the book, in the crematorium you have burned also poor Frohnmeyer. Now there is no point in it. If religion itself is not there, the city becomes immediately legal.

Any questions?

Richard Wagner,

CBS Network.

Could you explain why you make the statement that religion has given humanity nothing except the disease AIDS? I don’t understand that.

You are right. It has given many more things too.

For instance?

It has given a divided humanity, it has given thousands of wars, bloodshed, murders, burning of living people, it has certainly given many more things.

But specifically, how has religion contributed to AIDS?

Two reasons. One, every religion propagates that celibacy is something spiritual, which is absolute nonsense. Celibacy is unnatural. And there has never been anybody who was celibate unless he was impotent. Your body functions according to its own program. It does not know that you are a Catholic monk. It goes on creating male sperms same way, whether you are Catholic monk or not. What you are going to do with those sperms? The natural repressed is bound to find some perverted way and religions managed monks to live together, nuns to live together, and they are not to meet each other. That was full opportunity for monks to be homosexuals. Homosexuality is a contribution of religions and AIDS is the ultimate outcome of homosexuality. So it is a long chain.

What came first, religion or AIDS?

Religion.

But we all understand that AIDS is a virus. How can a virus be caused by a religion?