I was asked once who did I look to for authority as I was an atheist. It was an interesting questions because I had never looked further than my upbringing. I had read English poets and poets in translation, I had read most of the famous writers of Europe and dissected their knowledge of the human being with my own experience and knowing when I read them that they were being honest. As an atheist I accept all text considered holy were written over centuries by men and women.
My authority, as such, is to do ill to no living being and to seek knowledge of all things.