o'reilly is legitimately standing at the end of a long line of human thought, but it doesn't necessarily have to do with religion. the crux of what o'reilly is saying is that people won't behave properly unless they have a fear of consequence. because o'reilly also wants small government, he pushes it off to a higher power to enforce the threat of consequence. but, there's a lot of problems with the whole approach.
to begin with, just because bill wants the bad guys to believe they're going to have to deal with god doesn't mean they're going to. because religion is so counter-intuitive, in order for it to really work as a disincentive it needs to be enforced from the top - by government, maybe, as was done by various christian churches in the past and is still enforced in islamic theocracies, or maybe by media, as is done more viably in the united states. so, it's just a hobbesian argument, in the end - and nothing to do with religion, itself.
but, what's worse is that a really moral person doesn't require the consequence. if you're only behaving because of the threat of consequence, you're not truly moral. his ends really don't follow from his strategy.
dawkins seems to generally realize that he's often debating with social engineers, rather than legitimately religious people. whatever sort of self-constraints he imposes on himself tend to neutralize his arguments. i wish he'd engage his opponents on the level they truly exist on, rather than the level they pretend they exist on.
o'reilly's argument here is actually a type of vulgar marxism.
i should actually clarify, because that term has been co-opted. when i use the term "vulgar marxism", what i refer to is when capitalists use marxist ideas in order to promote a capitalist agenda.
so, what o'reilly is saying is that he agrees with the marxist insight that religion is a tool of social control. he's then arguing that we need religion for precisely that reason.
i, on the other hand, am following through with the deconstruction.
dawkins understands this. he knows o'reilly is full of shit. but, he bites his tongue. and he does this all of the time. it drives me nuts.