Well, Nietzsche argued that slave morality is bad in a higher, natural sense. To say that certain values are good in themselves is to suggest that that evaluation is obvious or self-evident. Indeed, that's what Sam Harris does in defending utilitarianism (we all want to be happy, he says), but his arguments there strike me as weak.
Although I agree that we don't need theistic religion to be good, it's not so obvious what we should be doing with our life or how we should be living, especially when we escape the prison or crib of religion. The Western traditions are more individualistic and self-centered, while the Eastern ones are more world-weary and oriented towards helping us escape from life's absurdity. I touched on this conflict in the article below:
