It’s really amazing that in the age of unbelief, as a smart man called it, there isn’t even more fraud. After all, with no God, there’s no one to ever call you to account, and no accounting at all if you can get away with it.

Stein is arguing that widespread skepticism or secularism (“the age of unbelief”) weakens an internal and external moral check on dishonest behavior. The quote frames belief in God—and, crucially, divine judgment—as a deterrent against fraud: if there is no ultimate accountability beyond human institutions, then wrongdoing becomes easier to rationalize when one expects to evade legal or social consequences. The remark also implies a paradoxical compliment to society: despite diminished religious belief, fraud is not even more rampant, suggesting that other moral frameworks or communal norms still restrain many people. Overall, it’s a claim about the relationship between metaphysical belief and ethical conduct, expressed in the language of incentives and accountability.