Where do atheists get their morality from?

[Polaris]

So just to clarify, if such is what I'm doing: are you saying that what we would regard as laws were originally, at some period lost in the mists of human history, collated and codified into some form of religious practise perhaps for the very purpose of applying those laws?

In a way, yes. One person said that religion was one of the greatest good for early societies because it helped to solidify a sense of justice and common identity necessary for the societies to thrive. It did not arise out of a need to exert order, but to create order among a band of Mesolithic-Neolithic tribesman.