What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[abaris]

Yep. Makes sense. Would you agree, however, that there are SOME broad agreements even among atheists?

But these SOME don't go much beyond disbelief. Atheists are quite a broad group of people. Ayn Rand was an atheist, just to give one example. I wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire, if you get my drift.

There are atheists I don't want to be associated with and there others I happen to agree with. I'm not defining myself over my atheism, but over my values. And these have next to nothing to do with my absence of belief. I can appreciate the pope's stance on wealth distribution and climate change, since he's got some clout when it comes to influencing the members of his church and I happen to agree with what he's saying on these matters.

My point is, I don't buy the whole package. If I agree with the pope on a matter, I'm still not agreeing with anything else he stands for. But I'm not waving it away either because of some stupid principle.