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I will go further and in my experience many people who profess Christianity have virtually no moral system. I have determined this in conversations when I ask them things like "what's the difference between morals and laws". A simple example (to my mind, at least) is the huge number of Christians who approve of abortion on demand.

(For the sake of simplicity and symmetry I'm going to take both believers and non-believers at their word and not try to impose external definitions on them ("anyone who says that isn't really a Christian")

I would say that many of the atheists I know have struggled with questions of morality and have reached some clear conclusions. For instance many libertarian atheists view the Non Aggression Principle as very important axiom of their own behavior and look for it in others.

I think many people professing Christianity are functional nihilists, whose understanding of Christian morality is shallow. Many of these people in fact use Christianity to assuage their conscience. Jesus forgives, only belief in him is needed for eternal life.

As Jim's Free Republic Credo thoughtfully posted above says FR stands against "government enforced atheism". The track record for that is truly horrible.

On the other hand the track record of doubting, skeptical, agnostic and philosophical atheist people is not horrible, in fact data suggests that atheists are among the least likely to be convicted of serious crimes (second only to Pentecostal Christians). Here is

Here is a link to statistics on the percent of atheists in prison vs. their prevalence in the nation as a whole.

Self-professed atheists are less likely than the general population to be convicted of serious crimes, and second only to Pentacostal Christians in this regard. (It's interesting how badly self-identified "pagans" do in this measure).

I tend to think our society would be far better off if more people held moral beliefs, and took them more seriously. I once asked five men I was having dinner with to name the 10 commandments. Three of them claimed to be Christians. Between them they could only name 8.

Belief in religion (not just superficial branding, which far too many have today) is the most tried and true way to inculcate moral beliefs into people, particularly in children. It does have the problem that if ones morals are tied to belief in a specific religion and one for whatever reason stops believing one may be (at least temporarily) without a moral code.

I think it's incorrect to assert, as a fact, that atheists are intrinsically immoral. The authors attempt to do so is facile, and as I say fails for flagrant violation of the straw man argument logical fallacy.