Three Questions:
1. Upon what foundational principles do you base all of your moral and ethical decisions?
2. Are these principles absolute?
3. Who can change them?
You nailed it with your list.
You can probably survive a generation or two w/o God. Forget about it after that. Once people are taught that they are nothing more than chemical reactions that achieved consciousness, the value of life will be less than it is now. They’d treat life in ways that would make Nazi medical researchers blush.
‘Upon what foundational principles do you base all of your moral and ethical decisions?’
do not do unto others what you would not have others do unto you...
‘Are these principles absolute?’
there can be no compromise of the above, else morality would not exist...
‘Who can change them?’
as is quite evident by the violation of the above on many levels, anyone who wishes to change them can, as they can change any religiously based tenets they find objectionable...
Good questions.
http://duckduckgo.com/?q=I+know+but+one+code+of+morality+Jefferson
What did Jefferson have in mind?