While promoting his new book, Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide, at The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, Dawkins made the point that if religion were abolished, it might “give people a license to do really bad things.” He referenced evidence that security camera surveillance of customers in shops did appear to deter shoplifting, adding that people might feel free to do wrong in the absence of a “divine spy camera in the sky reading their every thought.”
