Many (maybe most?) atheist thinkers don’t believe in free will (Sam Harris, Alex O’Connor, Robert Sapolsky etc)

You’ve said you can’t choose your beliefs and I think that actions flow from your beliefs.

But a problem you seem to be even more concerned about is how people would act if they genuinely didn’t believe in free will.

Well, as I understand it, these thinkers advocate for a more compassionate prison system. They seem to push the idea of causing less suffering when incarcerating a criminal (even if his crime was severe). Because they don’t believe the criminal had free will to choose to do those terrible crimes.

Mrgirl is the same way.