Atheism, in itself, makes no claim about "moral facts". It's the lack of belief in deities. If your whole premise of the article is based on squeezing lemonade

Atheism, in itself, makes no claim about "moral facts". It's the lack of belief in deities. If your whole premise of the article is based on squeezing lemonade from apples, or implying more about atheism other than what it's not, it won't be true because atheism is nothing other than lack of belief in deities. You can be an atheist and still believe morality can be derived from something other than a devised deity. I feel you'd be better off if you just went back to the drawing board; you seem confused by this whole 'atheism has no moral validation' notion. There's many other theories of universal creation other than what we typically think of as gods and those theories can just as well be used to justify personal moral code. I don't think you've had much experience with atheists, willfully or not, who've cared to clear you up on your delusions about it.