My Atheism: The Origins of Morality.

Preface and Context: I was recently challenged by a blogging/email buddy to explain my atheism and I responded, rather reflexively, with curt answers.  The questions were good ones, if not just a bit vehemently posed.  This post is one of a short series that attempts to answer those inqueries in a more respectful way.  Two disclaimers though: a) The questions were posed as a set and therefore have a certain coherency.  At the risk of losing the thread, I have decided to separate the individual parts and offer a post on each.  I have preserved the original order of the questions in the order of the posts if you choose to reconstruct the original query, b) I have, in some cases, edited the question to tone down the sarcasm.  These qestions were posed in the heat of "battle", and in order to reduce the chance of my responding in kind and missing the important points, I have tried to responsibly restate the question in the spirit in which it was originally intended.  Any mis-treatment in this respect is my own error and I apologize in advance, although I have made an effort to maintain my civility. 

2b) Where does 'morality' come from? 

The striking consistency of human values across cultures supports the conclusion that morality, like language, is an adaptive ability in (at least) humans -- that is, I think that morality evolved with the species.  I don't attribute mystical qualities to the ability to learn and abide by societal rules.  One could substitute any number of human behaviors in place of morality in the question, such as love, anger, compassion, envy, or language, for that matter.  The believer is convinced they are designed.  I am not.  I think they work, and that is their strength.