Sense and Goodness Without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism

by Richard C. Carrier

with libertarian free will, punishment and reward have no point or purpose, because they can have no practical effect. If the will is free of all causation, then nothing can really cause anyone to change or act differently. In contrast, determinism makes all this possible, and restores sense and goodness to punishing our villains and rewarding our heroes—because it alone makes our efforts to improve them matter, and it alone makes them the causes of their actions, rather than some mysterious unpredictable “something” devoid of all worthwhile properties, not at all resembling anything we’d recognize as a “person,” and ultimately governed by no sense or reason.