Virtuous Pagans and Honest Atheists

The angelically named Michael writes this formidable argument:

“Suppose that an atheist is not a moral relativist. Then he believes that there is a universal immaterial reality outside of himself, moral truth, that his character ought to conform to. Then, as a reasonable person, he must ask the question, “What is the source of this universal immaterial moral reality which I ought to conform to?” There are two possible sources: natural or supernatural agents. Supernatural agents are ruled out for an atheist, so we consider a natural origin. I claim that something cannot be created out of nothing, and I think you would agree. So we must consider the natural agent, be it human, animal, protoplasm or alien creating the universal moral reality from its own being and experience. But it is impossible for a completely natural being to have universal moral qualities without being united with a universal moral agent. On a completely natural plane, there is no human being, no animal, plant, protoplasm, etc. that is universal in genetics, and behavior, and reasoning by which to derive such a universal truth for all other beings (the atheist considers only natural causes in the agent as the source of a universal moral reality in question). Thus, by contradiction, that moral reality in question is nothing but a relative reality to the natural agent that originated it. Therefore, an atheist must be a moral relativist.”

Speaking as one who once was an atheist who is not a moral relativist, allow me with fear and trembling to pick up the hurled gauntlet on behalf of all atheist moral absolutists. I submit that an atheist absolutist is a logically permissible position, if not logically inevitable.
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