Athiesm and Morality

For some bizarre reason, I've been running into folks lately who equate Atheism with a rejection of morality in general. I assume this is because people have run to Atheism in the past for horribly wrong and twisted emotional reasons, but I could be wrong. just because morality is associated with a spooky ethereal father figure to one person, does not imply that it is therefore instrinsically tied with such a concept.