EXPERT OPINION, FREE WILL IS UNSCIENTIFIC

[RELIGIOUS FREE WILL IS NOT THE SAME AS MERE FREE WILL AS WE SHALL SEE.  IF IT IS POSSIBLE FOR FREE WILL TO BE MORE ANTISCIENCE THAN IT IS, RELIGIOUS FREE MANAGES THAT!]

Individuals whose declarations about science must carry weight deny that we have the power to create choices freely. The choices we make are made by forces in us that are out of our control. When you think of how little control you really have you start to feel that choice is not the free thing it feels like it is. For these people of science, the brain is not able to choose in reality but is controlled by physical forces and is a physical force itself.

Science historian William Provine, "Free will is not hard to give up, because it is a horribly destructive idea to our society. Free will is what we use as an excuse to treat people like pieces of crap when they do something wrong in our society. We say to the person, 'You did something wrong out of your free will, and therefore we have the justification for revenge all over your behind.' We put people in prison, turning them into lousier individuals than they ever were. This horrible system is based upon this idea of free will."

You may say that if we don't have free will then we are programmed to do those things to people so it does not matter. You may say it argues not against free will but believing in it. I say it is against believing free will first and foremost and secondly about as an excuse for attacking people who harm.

I would suggest that free will if it exists and is not set up by a God is not that important. It is not enough to justify many punishments. It is hugely important then if a perfect God or at least one smarter than us sets it up. Thus it is no great endorsement of punishment when we cannot trust it enough. You cannot hurt somebody out of respect for free will that is only a natural faculty any more than you can trust a calculator accidentally made by nature. You trust one made by an intelligent designer.

Anyway, Laurence Krauss, "I also have to agree that everything I know about the world tells me that there's no such thing as free will."

Reality is that if God created my brain, he created something that is both bad and good even if I just disable the bad side.  It is still there.  It is still bad.  Thus God must be punishing people by getting them to degrade themselves by doing wrong and also by making further punishment necessary.  We are thus doing his will by exacting revenge.  You may say that revenge is just trying to degrade a person in return for the evil they did while punishment is trying to uphold their dignity to see and pay for what they have done wrong.  But that is not what is implied by God creating your brain!  You cannot avoid having a vengeful side if you punish for the sake of God and in a disposition of faith.

FINALLY

As free will says you can save a life that you took if you got the chance again and there is no way to be certain what you will do it is clearly outside the realm of science.  You cannot even go back one moment in time to test.  Science and testing are the same thing and this doctrine is not science.