Edge.org is running a fascinating series of articles asking major public figures in science, “What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?” Prominent atheist and evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne’s answer is “Determinism.” In his words, “All matter and energy in the universe, including what’s in our brain, obey the laws of physics.” And Coyne jumps right to the significance of his viewpoint: The most important implication is that is we have no “free will”: At a given moment,...

Reductive materialist Jerry Coyne doesn't believe human choices are real. They are, he says, just matter and energy doing what they've always done. He thinks, however, that we should still “punish criminals,” that we should, in fact, remove them from society when they’re dangerous, reform them so they can rejoin us, and deter others from apeing bad behavior. But we shouldn’t imprison people as retribution—for making a ‘bad choice.’ One must in this case point out that C.S. Lewis was arguing...