Do We Really Have Free Will?

Interesting article in the December 2 USA today by Jerry Coyne about why there is no free will. You can click on the title of this posting to be directed to the article.
Dr. Coyne offers a logical explanation for why he believes there is no free will. Taken on its face, he is (mostly) consistent in his thought process and reaches an inevitable conclusion based on his worldview.

But that is the rub: his worldview. His worldview is that of evolutionary biology. Ultimately, we are nothing more than a product of our atoms, chemicals, and environment according to evolution. As much as he says this view of the world does not lead to nihilism, it must. If it is true that we are just chemical reactions and "meat computers" with no free will, then the very words Dr. Coyne wrote have no meaning or significance.

Obviously, I am not sympathetic to his conclusion, but he made a couple of statements that are outright ridiculous based on his conclusions. The idea that we should continue to punish wrongdoers, even though they are not responsible for their actions, is like a computer self-programming itself and saying it had no external influence.

The other ridiculous statement is his last one, "We can go about building a kinder world." That very statement assumes that we have a choice of whether we will build one or not. If we don't have a free will, we can't choose or not choose to build one. His statement either betrays to us what he really thinks, or he is inconsistent in his conclusions about the moral ramifications of his hypothesis.

The Bible does not reach the same conclusion as Dr. Coyne. The Bible tells us that we are sinners by nature and by choice (Genesis 2; Romans 1-3). Despite the doctor's protestations, everyone faces a choice as to whether or not he will accept or reject Christ with the corresponding ramifications of that choice.

Dr. Coyne's assumption is that the world we experience is a "closed system" with no outside influences. We just celebrated Christmas, which is the greatest evidence that we live in an "open system" in which God breaks into our world to change people and circumstances to accomplish his purposes. Our world is not made from chance and random accidents. God has created all that we see and is actively involved in the world he created. As our Creator, God has put in us his image, which includes the ability to choose.