Determinism
Determinism
Atheism reaches a peak of performative contradiction in its treatment of free will. A growing number of materialists argue that free will is an illusion because the brain is a physical system governed entirely by cause and effect.
On this view, every thought is the inevitable outcome of prior neurochemical states. Human beings are reduced to "meat puppets" or "moist robots," with no genuine agency or capacity for choice.
If this is true, the entire project of atheist activism collapses into farce. Why write books, engage in debates, or attempt persuasion at all if no one is capable of choosing what they believe?
If determinism is true, the Christian cannot help but believe and the atheist cannot help but doubt. Reasoned debate presupposes that human beings are free agents capable of weighing evidence, responding to reasons, and changing their minds accordingly.
By denying free will, atheistic materialism renders its own arguments meaningless, mere noises emitted by biological automatons rather than rational appeals to truth.
Formal Argument
P1. Rational justification is normative: beliefs are warranted because reasons are binding standards, not merely causes.
P2. If a worldview reduces belief-formation entirely to non-rational physical causation, then “reasons” become mere causal stories with no normative authority.
P3. If reasons have no normative authority, then no belief is rationally justified, including the worldview that claims this reduction.
P4. Atheistic materialism reduces mental life to brain causation plus evolutionary conditioning.
C. Therefore, atheistic materialism undermines rational justification and cannot be affirmed as rationally true without contradiction.
Analogy
Imagine a courtroom where the judge announces, “Every verdict I issue is determined entirely by prior chemical reactions in my brain. I do not evaluate evidence; outcomes are inevitable.”
At that moment, the legal system collapses. Reasoning, judgment, and responsibility all presuppose the ability to evaluate reasons and choose accordingly.
If human belief formation is fully determined by physics, persuasion and rational debate become meaningless rituals rather than truth-seeking enterprises.