Atheism and Ethics

[Lucian]

Thanks for the reply. 
I like this topic because it is appears simple and yet is actually quite complex. The question isn’t whether I think you have good standards there, the question is whether those standards are mind independently real. That they exist in some way and are authoritative regardless of what people think. That there is a real standard of good.
Do you think that your moral views there point to such a standard, and can you elaborate on how?

Another way to phrase this. You have given good normative ethics there, I am asking about the metaethics.

        Without God I'm not sure that a "mind independent" set of meta-ethics can be established.

The ethics that let's say wolves would use to govern good or bad behavior is limited to the mind of the wolves. From a secular point of view then there is no way to establish meta-ethics.

Especially if we regard men as animals.

I don’t disagree with you that [realist] metaethics can’t be established, although I think I am now on board with @The Grand Nudger in saying that theistic metaethics essential boil down to subjective morals. However I do think that anti-realist views have a decent shot of being establishable if the reasons for realism are seen as inadequate. It would be more a balance of probability subjective to each person though; given the fairly entrenched disagreement in the field it seems hard to say we can demonstrate anything beyond a reasonable doubt. 
This thread was me saying “hey, you folk who do believe in them, how do you argue for it and justify the belief”. Something to keep me open minded as I explore these things. 

I think that evolutionary reasons give us good grounds to require stronger proof than intuition on these things, just like you seem to. The