My Atheism: Morality and Justice

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. 

Question 2d) If morality is a consensus of opinion, how universally 'just' is that? If it doesn't have to be universally 'just', how is the applicability of the 'moral' determined? 

Response 2d: Universal Justice -- Two words which seem so "right" when brought together.  But, a human DESIRE for universal fairness does not make it happen or make it even feasible.  In order to HAVE universal justice, one MUST require a devine and, presumably, omniscient arbiter and, as the title of my blog implies, I don't believe there is one.  I personally consider morality, not so much a consensus, as an innate human sensibility.  

According to Wikipedia (see "Justice"), studies at UCLA in 2008 have indicated that reactions to fairness are "wired" into the brain and that, "Fairness is activating the same part of the brain that responds to food in rats... This is consistent with the notion that being treated fairly satisfies a basic need".  Research conducted in 2003 at Emory University, Georgia, involving Capuchin Monkeys demonstrated that other cooperative animals also possess such a sense and that "inequity aversion may not be uniquely human." indicating that ideas of fairness and justice may be instinctual in nature.

As I have stated in previous posts, I believe humans have evolved as a species with morality developing as an integral part of its reliance on socialization for survival.  I stick with that hypothesis here.  Because I feel this way, I look to communities to execute their own rules of law.  As long as the members of that community recognize and uphold those rules, justice works.