Harris is akin to Cliff’s Notes with the addition of smug self-satisfaction.

Sam didn’t author his free will book and he shouldn’t get put off that “Dennett” dismissed it as amateurish since “Dennett” isn’t an agent. He’s as responsible for criticizing “Sam” as a rain storm is for wetting his clothes.

And the stampeding elephant. That elephants have large complex brains capable of a semblance of self-awareness and memories capable of underwriting a quasi-moral retributive justice for perceived abuse calculations going on in the elephant’s brain means they cannot be agents too [sarcasm]. A rampaging elephant is a hurricane (or al Qaeda…points for taking swipes at the Islam bugbear). The elephant made the mistake of attributing agency and casting blame on its human tormentors. It should have read “Sam’s” book.

Ah the clock tower shooter dysfunctionalism argument again. Dennett showed that this dismisses the majority of cases when brain function goes right instead so it’s not a tumor all the way down. People may develop a capacity for deliberative self-control and desiring the desirable. We have more degrees of freedom than a clam opening and closing its shell. Much of the time we are overriding impulses or undesirable desires.

But alas Joe Rogan (and fans) serves ample demonstration that humans are potential tumbleweeds buffeted by prevalent winds so the spark for free will gets blown out altogether.

Don’t blame me for this post. I didn’t author it.

I will not get involved in the "pissing contest" of the freewill debate. I will continue to live my life today and tomorrow as I have in the past as a secular humanist, striving to do or cause no harm.

Free will: now there's an old, old debate topic. There is something to what he says. What we think, say, and do is obviously shaped by our culture, environment, experience, and neural wiring. Any yet I cannot help but think that I have choices, that I make executive decisions that may cut across all those other factors. Is my sense of freedom, limited though it may be, just an illusion? I don't think so.

Welcome to the asylum. Enjoy your stay.

I’ve read his book on this subject. Sam’s not the first by any means to make the case against free will. I still find the concept most challenging to accept.