What Is Expected of Atheists

You have no God to place positive expectations on you. So who places expectations upon you!?

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In the absence of any divinity, we finally see the secular world as that which is our reality.

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I asked “who or what” conditions solve the expectations of life and you answered “reality” - I apologize for the “hubris”, but what is reality?

Please explain just what “positive expectations” are placed on a person by these non existent entities …

Essentially, any other words or attention from a benevolent being.

Use your deductive reasoning skills. I know it’s a difficult task for theists, but make an attempt nonetheless. In a secular world, what is there that can provide us non-believers with these expectations with which you seem obsessed? In a secular world, after all, there is all that is available and part of the natural world to provide necessary meaning.

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Mine isn’t so much a “who”. It’s more of a “what”. Whenever I get that burning itchy sensation in my groin area, my groin expects me to scratch it, or go find some type of ointment that will stop the itching and burning.

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Simple. Reality is just a figment of your imagination. But with weekly laundry… and paying bills… grocery shopping… morning bowel movements. You know, shit like that. Otherwise, reality is all in your head.

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What about those who have hardly considered the source of such expectations, as they have the ability to understand expectations but down-weight this information when making decisions?

If @Tin-Man is allowed curveballs, I want in on that, too.

If I could push the heart button twice, I would!!!

Subjective reality is mostly enjoyed alone.

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A finer definition of Self has never been spoken: “when my groin itches, I scratch it.”

Right back to the stone ages. Existential to the peak - or maybe I’m high. (Hopefully it’s the high)

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I place them on myself.

For me, “reality” is the physical world that is presented via my senses. I live in the here and now, I look both ways before I cross the street. That is sufficient for me because what I perceive is wondrous and complex.

Reference first response. I am my benevolent being.

Please allow me to follow the trend of this post and put in in context.
@rat_spit If you decide to masturbate, and perform that act, it all fits neatly into those definitions.
You placed expectations on yourself, you did this act physically, and you were your own benevolent being.

Why would there be any expectations placed on anyone? Ratty Ratty Ratty, you are not making sense once again.

God can only place expectations on a believer. If you believe in a god then you have expectations, ‘God’s expectations’ placed on you. The act of belief is at the core of your expectations… NOT GOD. You have not shown any evidence for the god thing. You merely assert, “These are the expectations, God has for us.” and then you believe them. There is no mystery here.

It works exactly the same way for atheists. (Understand that Atheism itself has no expectations. At most, you might expect that a person who claims to be an atheist does not believe in a God.) That is all. Nothing else.

So, do we have any expectations at all? I am a bit of a stoic. " * The Stoics would have us remind ourselves daily - to actively differentiate between what is and is not under control - to not waste energy over uncontrollable adverse events.*" I am also an existentialist in that I don’t dwell much on the past or focus too much on the future. The here and now is important, the choice I make today will guide my path for tomorrow and this choice is independent of anything I have ever done in the past. (LOL, the problem with this is that I have been making independent choices not based on my past for so long that now my independent choice seems to be part of my past behavior. LOL.) An example: Every time I go on a vacation, I make a point of doing something I never imagined myself doing. (Eating bugs in China, Skinny dipping in the Ionian sea, buying a tent, and camping out in the mountains overlooking the city of Athens, riding an elephant in Thailand, I also got to pet a living 8ft crocodile, sitting atop the great wall of China, etc… etc… etc…) Yea, I did all the tourist things, but I did unique things as well. I went Gambling at the Casino in Monte Carlo. I broke into Wimbelton when it was closed and wandered about until I was asked to leave. I sat outside the Collesium in Rome and watched the sunset over a bottle of Sangria. I can go on for days.

What guides me? My personal choices. THE SAME THING THAT GUIDES A PERSON TO BELIEVE IN A GOD. It’s that fucking simple. I have the culture around me and I will choose to believe it or not. A believer has a god that tells them to kill homosexuals and not to work on Sundays or they will be killed, and they choose to believe it or not. There is no difference between making a choice to believe a bullshit God or choosing to believe the world around you. They are just different options.

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I don’t think we (in general) have the capacity to be our own benefactor. If that were the case, the world would be much friendlier.

I have an alternate view on masturbation, per say. I view it as a habit. A cheap means of achieving momentary pleasure.

I stopped masturbating because (and this may seem crazy) the ratio to masturbation and flat tires on my wife’s car was above 1.

In a marriage, I believe it’s wrong to masturbate. To rob your parter of that sexual aspect of the marriage. It’s a disservice to the marriage.

So my expectation is that I will not masturbate. That I will save my sacred sperm for the day of atonement.

Everyone answers to some one. For some of us, that someone is God. For others it’s your supervisor.

Do you answer to anyone, Cog?

The difference, obviously, that your supervisor can be proven to exist while your god cannot.

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Well. In that case we’ll call it one’s “conscience”.

As secular as the conscience is, could it be you’re finally learning that a higher power is unnecessary?

Unnecessary, but not altogether less mysterious and profoundly smarter, more benevolent, intelligent, funny … as evil as my conscience seems to be (in that he tortures me to no end) I at least see the benefit in his “learning curve” (dick joke - he learns on a CURVE - ahahahahaha. Big dicks are like frisbees, they tend to curve at the end!)

Try telling that to my wife. She is actually HAPPY that I DO masturbate. Otherwise, she knows I would be all over her all the time and she would never get any rest. :joy: