Wh do so many rationalists assume a pose of intellectual superiority when in fact they lose the argument every time?
Because without a regenerated human spirit, they only perceive with the flesh and from soulish perspectives. Spiritual issues are then foolish to them.
An interesting aspect of morality vs ethics, is that God still has provided institutions for believers and unbelievers alike to live within. If one is moral within the institutions of volition, marriage, family and national governance, one can live fine within those institutions prior to the first death.
Atheists and Agnostics are many times apparently more morally conscience than many believers. For many, morality and ethics become counterfeits to living life through faith in Christ, so they many times will be even more rigorous in their devotion to that system than believers who allowed to drift out of fellowship with God in simple testing of their faith.
Conversely, some of the most miserable people in the world are believers who have failed to live morally, in part because they confuse moral behavior with the Christian way of life and secondly because their immoral behavior likely violated the rules associated with one of the above divinely established institutions. When His Will is violated by those in His family, He disciplines His children. So the immoral believer frequently is attacked by both sides, divine discipline as well as unbelievers who hate Christianity.