A time is going to come when professing a religion or religious view is going to garner the same reaction as being racist, believes actor Chris O'Dowd.

The Sapphires and Bridesmaids star tells the latest edition of GQ Magazine that he used to be respectful of people of faith but is becoming less tolerant of them the older he gets.

He thinks religion is little more than a "weird cult" and a waste of time, as well as being responsible for "ruining the world".

He also predicts that attitudes towards religion will become increasingly hostile.

"For most of my life, I've been, 'Hey, I'm not into it, but I respect your right to believe whatever you want'. But as time goes on, weirdly, I'm growing less liberal. I'm more like, 'No, religion is ruining the world, you need to stop!'" he told the magazine.

"There's going to be a turning point where it's going to be like racism. You know, 'You're not allowed to say that weird s**t! It's mad! And you're making everybody crazy!'"

He then goes on to say he believes American politicians play the faith card in order to boost their chances of being elected president.

"And you know, now America can't have a president that doesn't say he believes in God. So we're f**ked! Like, they f**ked everything!" he says.

"You wanna go and live in your weird cult and talk about a man who lives in a cloud, you do that, but don't. I mean, you really think that Barack Obama believes in God? No way!"