 The well-known passage from Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", "If God is dead, all is permitted," suggests that non-believers would not hold moral lives without the possibility of punishment by a God.Greg M. Epstein notes a similar theme in reverse.Famous apologies by Christians who have "sinned" (such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Swaggart) "must embolden some who take enormous risks for the thrill of a little immoral behavior