Free Will: A Discourse between New Atheism and Islam

Abstract

Traditionally, atheists used philosophical arguments to deny the existence of God and to defame religions. New atheists have added scientific, moral and historical argumentation to make atheism more attractive and appealing to intellectual mind. Moreover, they use aggressive language to deny the existence of God and eradicating the role of religions to all spheres of life. This is a qualitative study in which the atheists’ ideology about free will is analyzed in Islamic perspective. For this purpose, data is gathered from primary sources; books, articles and online sources. Sam Harris has discussed the atheist ideology in depth about free will. According to Harris God does not permit free will to human and free will is an allusion. However, Islamic ideology expresses that every human is free to choose his way of life. God has directed humanity to do good deeds and to avoid from evils and sins. Now, it depends on human which way he/ she adopts. The reward of good deeds is paradise whereas the punishment of bad deeds is hell. This ideology is logical and rational in scientific and philosophical paradigms. In this way, atheistic position that man has no free will is irrational and illogical.