"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business," he said.

Ventura then modified the statement, saying "the religious right wants to tell people how to live."

Asked this Sunday by NBC's Tim Russert as to how his comments would play to the nearly 3 million Minnesotans who are religious, Ventura said "...being weak-minded is not necessarily a detriment, Tim. It just means that you have a weakness and, therefore, you go to organized religion to help strengthen yourself."

Later in the Playboy interview, Ventura tackled issues of sexual harassment.

When asked about the 1991 Tailhook scandal, in which Navy aviators allegedly groped and assaulted female guests at a party, Ventura said that while he doesn't condone what happened, "I understand it."

"These are people who live on the razor's edge and defy death and do things where people die," he continued. "They're not going to consider grabbing a woman's breast or a buttock a major situation. That's much ado about nothing," Ventura told the interviewer.

Asked what type of object he'd like to be re-incarnated as, Ventura responded, a 38DD bra.