Bash_profile vs. .bashrc (joshstaiger.org)

In the example he gives, like many I have seen on the Internet, it tests for .bashrc and if it exists, sources it. But if you didn't test it and for some reason .bashrc didn't exist, what would happen? And if nothing bad would happen, why test for it?

I would recommend reading[0] instead.

[0] http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/10/execution-sequence-for-b...

In my opinion the only thing .bash_profile should do is source .bashrc, that way the environment is consistent regardless of invocation.