I believe I am taking responsibility for myself and not out sourcing my happiness to anyone or anything else. A supportive community? I felt as if I needed to be careful about everything I thought and said not to offend someone else's belief. I isn't being supportive to either myself or others since it undermined my integrity. A loving God to take care of me? I found it to be a platitude when things went badly, and situations were as easily interpeted as punishment for something I did wrong. Salvation and an afterlife? Salvation has a cost attached to it which required the torture and death of another. I also believe it promoted a kind of irresponsibility for my own behavior because someone else had already taken that responsibility - or rather I gave it away. Either way, I no longer had complete responsibility for myself. Taking back that responsibility I believe has forced greater maturity. As for an afterlife, no one knows what happens after we die. Anyone who claims they do isn't truthful.

In short, I found that all the benefits you mention of belief had another side to the coin. I decided I prefered an alternative which I believe is more genuine - for me at least. I decided to trust my own sensibilities rather than simply believing what someone else tells me is the right thing. The risk of being wrong feels greater at least initially, and I believe admitting I don't know something (perhaps anything with absolute certainty) is honest and preferable to claiming I know something when I really don't and don't believe I can with the methods of knowing prescribed.

None. It doesn’t require either of those criteria.

I feel confident that life consists of a series of natural consequences for actions, not reliance on the whims of a fickle god.

I feel secure that if I am not happy with my circumstances, it is up to me to either adapt my attitude or change my circumstances using my own reasoning skills and ingenuity, taking full responsibility for my own happiness or unhappiness.

Achieving success at creating joy in my life (and hopefully for and with others) gives me satisfaction with myself and the circumstances I've created far more than receiving these things as a gift from a supernatural deity who decides whether I'm worthy of the kind of life I desire or not.

As several have pointed out, atheism is not a thing, so there is no reason to expect "no thing" to give us emotional satisfaction. That said, there is no good reason to deny oneself the "thing" that does give emotional satisfaction. There is nothing wrong with religion that removing the superstition won't cure.

Well, I hate bosses and authority figures enough that I went into business for myself, and have no plan to have employees.

I expect I derive some emotional satisfaction in my confidence that no person or thing is above me ruling my life or judging me. Granted, in life, there is government level bureaucracy, and licensures that must be kept up to date... but I think the concept is still comparable.

I kinda always thought the god thing was hokie and didn't make sense . I guess it's one thing I don't have to think about whether god exists or not like when I was a kid being told he does .

i do not rely on their being no gods for my emotional satisfaction. why should these two things be connected? i am not an atheist because it affords me emotional satisfaction. i am an atheist because there are no gods and i realize that. it's like... what emotional satisfaction do i get from being five foot five? i'm not five foot five for some reason other than that i am five foot five because that's how my genes turned me out. for emotional satisfaction i listen to music, love my guy and my furbabies, eat yummy food when i can, all the normal stuff that gives emotional satisfaction. it doesn't come from my lack of religion. there is no connection. (it's not as if i go to an atheist house of nonworship and refrain from worshiping with a bunch of other people so i can feel a communal lack of belief with them!)

g

p.s. had i been raised as a religious christian -- i was raised neither religious nor christian -- i might feel some emotional gratification from escaping that, but that just isn't the case. some other commentators below said they felt freedom. i didn't need to be freed from anything.

What a weird question, why would you expect to get advantages from being yourself.

Being here with thinking people

As a one time religious believer I took pride in the fact that I knew all of life's answers with the universe and mankind in general. This went so far that I studied phenomena of every possible kind just so I would know. I was the "answer man" and I loved it.

As an atheist today I realize it is all false and nobody can know. Believers were only making it all up and they continue to do so today. Religious belief has changed drastically in the last 70 years. So has phenomena in general. My great satisfaction today is in know that it is OK to admit that we do not know. This is the "one up" that I have on others by logic and evidence.

Nobody telling me I am a sinner, the joy of thinking for myself, the knowledge that I am a good person because I choose to be, (not bullied into it) and etc.

No guilt.

If removing the cognitive dissonance that religion causes gives one some emotional satisfaction, then that is your answer. On further reflection, there is also the removal of guilt and control that Christianity has. I don’t have to feel bad that I am a sinful woman who will not submit to the control of a man. It’s all good!

Religion never made sense to me (since i was 4 years old), being free of this dogma gives me peace. If there is something out there has nothing to do with religion.
Freethinking and courage grew strongly and in parallel in my life. Own insights are always the correct options.

Satisfaction is probably not the right word but being free from fear of the Boogyman has some emotional benefit.

None.
I admit to a sense of contempt for those who believe in life-destroying magical nonsense, but I feel no superiority. No more than I feel superior to the mentally disadvantaged.

Except, I have the satisfaction of knowing the relationships I form are not based on belief in life-destroying magical nonsense. The relationships I have had, the communities i am a part of, were not formed because we all clung together to the same nonsense.
I have friends, who like me for me. Not fellow cult members who feel kinship towards ANYONE wearing the same graven image.

Well agnostic means not knowing. Not knowing is ignorance and ignorance is bliss.
I mean sure it's not the wishful delusion of the happy clappy Christian but at least we're not faced with the horrific Lovecraftian truth that the universe is in fact a droplet of Yog-Sothoth's ball sweat.
Sorry must go - it's time to trick the unwitting thralls into believing I've taken my meds. Phweeb!

Don't have to kiss ass everywhere I go.

Comfort that is only found in reality. Once a belief is truly understood it becomes moot. I cannot claim "ego satisfaction ", is it egotistical to try educating those considered to be on a dangerous course? Which a belief is.
Joy at the reality that it isn't part if my life.
And confident enough in my understanding of my reality to be comfortable.
Lots else... lol

Isn't Atheism complete separation of emotional satisfaction? A rejection of letting emotional satisfaction guide you? Emotions tied to my Atheism are more grim than satisfying. Seeing the atrocities occurring in name of religion is frightening and sad. Realizing we are governed by crazies whose goals are apocalypse is a terrifying thing. I have enormous sorrow and infuriation for the innocent victims of their crimes. Anxiety, hopelessness, anguish, despair, anger, even hate. None are satisfying an emotional "need".
Holy SH--! I've just realized religion is STILL guiding my emotions! And now my hate for it burns incandescent! UGH.

The only thing I get from agnosticism is knowing that I'm not lying to myself by thinking I know something I do not. There is a state of "I don't know" that that is a valid state to be in. I don't associate that knowledge or state with an emotional state. It has nothing to do feeling smarter or better. It's an introspective view and consequently involves only me and no one else. It has nothing to do with being happier or wiser. The word agnostic roughly means "not-knowing". It's a descriptive term to help define one's state of knowledge. It helps with clear thinking. That's all it does...well, that's all it should do.

I don't get any emotion from atheism no feeling of freedom or smug superiority .... it simply is, as it is

I don't feel smarter. There is no god. I am right and they are wrong.

I don't get any satisfaction about it. I have always been this way. It is how I was raised.

Not much satisfaction, admittedly, although it's nice not to have to read the awful bible and attend boring services. But it's not simply a matter of choice. I could be a member of a religious community and go through all the motions (as I did for a while, long ago). It wouldn't make me believe any of it, though, and so there would be no satisfaction to be gained there, either.