Evolution and the Disturbing Consequences of Denying Free Will

On this ID the Future from the vault, hear more of professor of neurosurgery Michael Egnor and host Casey Luskin’s discussion on free will. If there is no free will, and humans are merely following our chemical instructions, then how can we recognize evil and good? How can an evolutionist such as Jerry Coyne condemn even something as manifestly heinous as the Nazi holocaust? Egnor explains how Coyne manages it and argues that the attempt doesn’t wash. The best solution is to reject evolutionary materialism and accept what humans recognize at a deep level, Egnor says, namely that we are moral agents capable of freely choosing between good and evil. Egnor further argues that taking Coyne’s approach of denying free will has pernicious consequences for how the judicial system treats criminals and, perhaps even more unsettling, for how it treats potential criminals.