Atheists; what do you base your morals on?

[Darkstar]

What do you mean by the "paired with reason" part? How much does reason influence your morality exactly?

Is killing wrong? Surely, you wouldn't want to be killed, and most other people wouldn't either. But what if you were acting in self-defense? Or killing a terrorist leader? Empathy and the golden rule work as good rules of thumb, but just that; rules of thumb. They do not apply perfectly to every situation, and reason is needed to determine where the exceptions are.

Empathy isn't perfect, but it is much better than a specific set of moral rules. "Thou shalt not kill"? God doesn't really follow that, and he orders killings all of the time. If you have specific rules, there is little room for interpretation. And when these rules are flawed, then

If people don't have a sense of empathy, there is little helping them, religion or not.