Have you not considered how much more difficult it may be to formulate a stable set of values given the logical conclusion that there are no absolute truths. I consider it much more challenging than accepting some faith that some unfalsifiable God is absolute. But to each his own. My most important value is that I abhor those who force their value systems on those who opted-out. I try to observe and understand other cultures. It doesn't mean I shouldn't and can't have my own value system, even perhaps one that is unwavering or eventually consistent with my perspective of the world.
By far Anonymints most perspicacious piece of writing on any subject on these boards IMO - though I would never claim to have trolled through the entirity of his voluminous meanderings.
In philosophy (the philosophy of science) there is a concept (and adherents to the concept) of
verisimilitude. This is close, I believe, to what both Anonymint and myself would both ascribe to. The notion can likewise be applied to ethics and political philosophy. That is, we can only ever have an approximation to truth, not a hold on it absolutely.
Coincube, on the other hand, seems to ascribe to a more pragmatic approach to ethics - and in its way this is not a million miles from the approach mentioned above and championed most notably by Karl Popper. That is, for the pragmatist, the "truth value" of an ethical proposition can most readily be ascertained by its practical application - further, the practical "unfolding" of a precept is its
only meaningful measure.
Of course, Anonymint then goes off at a tangent when he starts banging on about "leftists" - which is ironic really, as the idea's that he has propounded above come as close to Mao's idea of the "permanent revolution" as anything you will find this side of Beijing.
Anyhow, 2 random thoughts that I'll give you. The first is that you can't have knowledge without doubt. I can be in no doubt about a logical tautology of the nature "Its either raining outside, or its not raining outside" - but of course, this tells us nothing about the weather or the world.
And two, a quote from the economist JK Galbraith - "The fortunate find virtue in that which perpetuates their good fortune". And that in a nutshell captures and explains the large part of any absolutist theory of morality.