Why 'should' atheists be moral?

[abaris]

It seems as though having empathy can be seen as a disadvantage to people then. If it wasn't for having empathy you would have no problem doing things to benefit your life which would make the lives of others worse. As an individual (not for society as whole) can you think of empathy as a side-affect of evolution which you would be better without.

No empathy is the hallmark of a sociopath. Having empathy on the other hand is not exclusive to humans. There are numerous experiments showing that at least some higher animals like the great apes and dogs probably have it too.