1. What is the role of free will to an atheist?

Comment #124034 by rationalchurch on February 8, 2008 at 7:42 am

The term “free will” means absolutely nothing in the first place. Free from what? Something has to account for our decisions. We can’t have something that cannot exist. A will free from all determining factors is not free, it’s impossible. There are reasons why we make decisions which are traceable to what we’ve inherited and to what we experience. We have a purposive will, there is no such thing as a free will; the very term makes no sense.