Christopher Hitchens, who was part of the New Atheist movement, accuses religious people of doing terrible things such as hurting children (because they teach them religion). He says that hurting a child is universally and absolutely a sin, and that revulsion to it is “is innate in any healthy person, and does not need to be taught.” Because religious people hurt children—Hitchens says that religion is immoral. His own words tell us that he does believe in a transcendent standard of morality.
Sam Harris (another New Atheist) says that the Golden Rule is a “wonderful moral precept,” that we have moral obligations to suffering people, and that slavery is obviously an abomination. These things don’t need to be taught since we have “moral emotions” (like hatred of cruelty and a sense of justice) even before we read Scripture.