Atheism and morality

[sapphi_snake]

richardhutnik said:

Good morals calls upon more than just the personal opinion of someone as to right and wrong.  So, the question is where an atheist gets morals and ethics from, besides themselves?  People who get off morally justify their own morals being off by their own rationalization.  I see it now with my father, who I had personally confronted with his use of language where he is going to kill people who don't do what he says... but he doesn't mean it.  I call him on it by saying he is either a psychopath (if he does it) or a liar (if he doesn't).  It doesn't resonate and he got worse with it.  His moral system justifies it because he apparently does things around the house, so he can talk like it.  His moral system doesn't have him see what he is doing is wrong in its own right.

So, answer me this, besides one's own set of reasoning, where do atheists get their morals from?  Atheism is not a belief system, it is a lack of a belief in something.  Because it is a lack of belief, it doesn't lend to people being able to figure a positive on how to live.  It also doesn't lay out the shoulds in life, or give a moral imperative.

 A person can have good morals if he/she thinks critically and objectively and takes into consideration other people's interests other than his/her own. I assume you believe that people are so different that it's impossible for to come up with similar morals by themselves. Ration is a better basis for morals than blindly following someone else's morals even if they're attributed to a deity (regardless of wheteher the deity exists or not, one does not need to follow it).