'A true atheist is one who is willing to face the full consequences of what it means to say there is no God.
To say there is no God means among other things there are no Absolute Standards. For instance, an atheist may believe with all his heart that murder is wrong, but if he runs into somebody else who believes with all his heart that murder isn't wrong as long as you can get away with it, there is no Absolute Standard by which it can be shown that one view is better than the other, just as there is no Absolute Standard by which it can be shown that vanilla is better than chocolate.
If an Atheist says that murder is wrong because it works against the good of society in general then he is saying that the good of society in general is gooder than the good of the murderer in particular, and having thrown out all Absolute Standrads, he can't say that. All he can say is that vanilla is better than chocolate because he likes it better and so do most of his friends.
If he says, "In the absence of Absolute Standards, I declare that murder is wrong in the name of common sense," he has simply made common sense his Absolute Standard. What is in accord with common sense is Right and what isn't is Wrong.
What is American is Right and what is un-American is Wrong. What is ethical is Right and what is unethical is Wrong. These all bring God back under different names, i.e. Nationalism, Ethics, Pragmatism. To be a true atheist is to acknowledge no rule except the rule of thumb...
Thus many an atheist is a believer without knowing it just as many believer is an atheist without knowing it. You can sincerely believe there is no God and live as though there is. You can sincerely believe there is a God and live as though there isn't. So it goes.'
Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, p.2.
