I find it humorous whenever people say of someone who rejected Christianity that they held onto Christian ethics, as if the one communicating this… didn’t. Because whenever people say stuff, they are unwittingly following the golden rule, which is the sum of Christian ethics. It is in every culture because culture would not exist without it. To say/communicate anything is to follow it… is to acknowledge the ability of another person to understand what you are communicating… is to communicate with them in a way they can understand… just as you would have them do to you.