I actually typed the above post hours ago, but Internet troubles prevented it from going through. I want to make this separate post as an additional statement.

While atheists may often tout their morality as superior to that of religious persons, they tend to forget that their morals are in fact direct descendants of Judeo-Christian values. Your values such as not killing, not stealing, not cheating on one's significant other, all are direct imports or evolutions of what religious people have taught for millennia. If our history were different and we were descended from, say, the Roman Empire (pre-Christianization, I mean) and religion, don't you think your values which, as you pointed out are self-defined, would be quite different, perhaps with some sort of enjoyment derived from watching slaves fight to the death. Even atheists would have a moral code defined by their predecessors, much different from our actual moral code. There is much to thank religion for, even if one doesn't subscribe to one, and it seems an injustice to me to define one's morals as superior to those who shaped 90% of his.