Didn't have school today, for reasons I won't get into. I did study for a few hours with some classmates, however, and this prompted me to do a little housework to make the house slightly more presentable than we normally keep it. Following our tryst with radiologic positioning information, I did a bit more housework, mainly because it offered an opportunity to listen some more to another book. I have put aside Mill and Smith and I am now into Hitchens' book again. Some things caught my attention, a few that I just had to research. One was a film done in 1972 called Marjoe, about an evangelist that takes journalists on a tour to show how he filches the masses of their money. Interesting in itself, and also that I've never heard of it. It wan an award.

Something else interesting in the book is his description of a discussion between A J Ayer and Bishop Butler. He references this in a discussion about whether religion is necessary to ensure people are 'good'. The question offered by theists is this;

But where would people be without faith? Would they not abandon themselves to every kind of license and selfishness?

After a few paragraphs he discusses the discussion between the two mentioned above.

The exchange proceeded politely enouhg until the bishop, hearing Ayer assert that he saw no evidence at all for the existence of any god, broke in to say, "Then I cannot see why you do not lead a life of unbridled immorality."

Then Hitchens poses the question;

Was he in fact not telling Ayer, in his own naive way, that if freed from the restraints of doctrine he himself would choose to lead 'a life of unbridled immorality'? One naturally hopes not.

That is a very good point, which would seem to negate the assertion that people need religion to be moral. Would any honest theist offer that they indeed need their religion for this reason? I guess it could be seen as a virtue, to admit one is only human, but one need not fall back on religion for this. Any rational human being will have to relinquish any claim to perfection. It takes a reasonable mind for that. In fact it could be argued that a profession of faith is used by some to insinuate a claim to perfection. One need only look around to know this is the case with some people.