[throw0101c]

> […] all without appealing to an authoritarian source of control.

Well that was partly what After Virtue was about: arguing it wasn't possible to have an objective moral system without the supernatural.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Virtue

And he's not the only one to hold this view (many atheists do as well):

* https://global.oup.com/academic/product/atheist-overreach-97...

You're left with either Nietzsche's arbitrary will, or virtues (à la Aristotle). For the latter, MacIntyre attempted to develop a system of morality (? ethics?) based on human biology:

* https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/655623.Dependent_Rationa...

Once can certainly tell oneself that there is a certain purpose or meaning to one's life, but if you're a materialist, then (the argument goes (AIUI)) it's not true.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is–ought_problem

The arrangement of atoms is arbitrary and without meaning, and to call some arrangement(s) "good" or "bad" or better / worse is a value judgement that is just as arbitrary and meaningless.

[keybored]

Link dump at the ready.

> And he's not the only one to hold this view (many atheists do as well):

The author Christian Smith is apparently a Roman Catholic. What do you mean?

[throw0101b]

> Link dump at the ready.

Links to three books which I've read recently (some owned, some library), and a link to an overview of the topic which they cover.

> The author Christian Smith is apparently a Roman Catholic. What do you mean?

Whether he is or not, the book in question has numerous footnotes to people / philosophers who are atheists.

[keybored]

> Whether he is or not, the book in question has numerous footnotes to people / philosophers who are atheists.

“Many atheists do” (they are in the footnotes of this book written by a Catholic). That’s misleading.