Reconciling morality with atheism

[Preechr]

All cultures have considered murder bad behavior, though many cultures have disagreed on what constitutes murder. Aboriginal tribes, much like your Romans or Old Dixie slave-owners, had a narrow view of what they considered real people, and most of these early societal types considered the murder of whatever they viewed as a real person less than moral. Roman Senators did not approve of the killing of another Senator with no just cause no more than did a slave-owner approve of the murder of another slave-owner. Slaves were considered to be property as were gladiators, not real people, like members of another tribe were considered to be more physical threats than fellow humans.

The examples you are giving highlight, as I said above, the evolution of our understanding of morality, not of morality itself. In 1,000 years, lying, cheating, stealing, rape and murder will still be immoral.

[Preechr]

I'm not getting the impression anybody is actually hitching their wagon to my moral star here...

Here's an example in the form of theft: We consider stealing morally incorrect, right? Not that I've stolen stuff, but I have gotten things for free before... In my opinion, unearned property has less value to me than that which I have worked hard for and thus earned. Property that I don't really value that much is more expendable than that for which I have sweated and/or bled.

Hyperbolic or not, I have been stolen from. On these occasions, I have noticed the property for which I had worked was quickly ruined upon it's theft. I think this indicates the lack of value placed on stolen goods by a thief as relative to the value placed on earned property by the person that actually earned it... ie: me.

Now, I could fill this example out a bit more, but that might get in the way of my larger goal here: Being called names. Gibbery Glibbity Goo, please SOMEBODY call me naive and/or retarded then add nothing at all to the discussion and run off to post recipes in Blabber.