Atheists would certainly not believe that there are absolute moral values.
we're not talking about absolute moral values tho, we're talking about perceived-to-be absolute moral values, which is an entirely different order of thing. your argument is that it doesn't matter what people believe so much as it does how that belief influences what they do. well: the Inquisition, all the Catholic v. Protestant wars, the conquistadores, persecution of & re-education for homosexuals, endorsement of slavery (the childern of Ham & so on), persecution of Jews, opposition to birth control, etc ad infinitum. that's just Xtianity, surely we could go on w/litanies of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu etc offenses. clearly non-religious persons & regimes, some avowedly atheist, have committed similar offense, some lesser & some worse; this isn't an argument for the morally superior history of non-belief. it is to say, tho, that a belief that your moral values are absolute, when in fact they aren't, is a v. dangerous jumping off point, as it leads to a rigid belief in one's own rightness rather than the ability to think critically & evaluate. (unsurprisingly, non-believers/skeptics tend to be slightly more intelligent on average than dogmatists, tho it's difficult to say which direction causation runs in that relationship)
you haven't said anything that even remotely convinces for the superiority of "absolute" religious morality over secular, non-religious morality, & I doubt you will, either.
we can then test Locke's contention by investigating whether atheists are indeed less moral than believers
go do it then. go do a double-blind study & report back on your findings. or don't. either way, don't offer up anecdotes about your "atheist friend" & C of E as proof of anything.
But from God there is no hiding one's sins. Oh no.
right, religious belief is such a great deterrent. b/c it's not as if deeply religious people sin constantly.