Can you be a moral atheist?

There are many people who believe that without religion there would be no moral code for people to live by. This belief is based on the notion that God is the author of morality; those things that he commands are moral and the things that he forbids are immoral. Such a view gives no credence to the fact that morality is in fact a basic function of social interaction and human society. Scientific experiments have shown that children display an innate sense of justice from a very young age; communities of apes have also been shown to behave in ways that demonstrate a set of social values that are upheld within each community. Furthermore history has shown that religion and morality very often do not go hand in hand; the Christian Crusades and Islamic Jihads are just two examples of religion leading to grossly immoral actions. The reality is that religion is not necessary for morality to exist. Moral values can be based on reason and our innate sense of justice as fairness.