This is an honest question. I want to know what you really think about this. Anyone who has a religion or some kind of god, has a basis for their morals, the laws that their god gives them.
(I'm saying "god" with a little "g" because I'm including all religions in this)
What is the origin of morals for an atheist? If you say, "your conscience" then what if in someone's conscience, they believed that it was ok to hurt other people? what gives you the authority to say they are wrong? there would be no basis for the law in a completely atheist society.
I'm not criticizing anyone for not having a religion, I just want an honest answer. What is the origin of your morals? If you say it was your parents, then where did they get them from? obviously somewhere along the line, they came from some form of religion. Honestly, what is your opinion?
Being atheist doesn't mean you don't value life, I think if you value life that's enough to base morals off of your conscience. How much you value life and living is what most laws are based on anyway so in a completely atheist society as long as the majority value life(which most would since the majority of people do) you could base the law off of that value since law isn't based on religious morals it's just based on preserving and respecting life.
I'm atheist and my morals probably do come a bit from my parents, but mostly I just try to do what I feel is right. The majority of atheist I know wouldn't deny that the morals in most religions are good things to adopt, they just don't want all the other crap that comes with the religion. I have no problem following the golden rule, but I don't believe that I should have to scare myself into following it because I don't want to go to hell or disappoint Jesus or whatever. I believe that morals came before religion and that religion is just one way invented to get people to adopt the morals and to follow laws. If people are made to believe that there are eternal consequences for their actions they'll be more thoughtful before acting. In the human society there are certain things you have to do to keep alive and to live well and they just happen to be more complicated than in the societies of other animals. The morals most of us have today are a survival instinct, we learned early on in our society that working together would help us thrive and in order to get people on your side you have to treat them a certain way and act a certain way yourself. I think morals are more of a basis for religion than religion a basis for morals...religion needs morals but morals don't need religion.