> But if we have no agency, nothing matters. There can be no morality: a criminal was always destined to commit a crime. It was never right for us to punish them, but that’s okay: we couldn’t have acted differently, so we shoulder no blame.<p>Right, and determinism seems likely to me to be correct, but I don't see the issue. Whether we'd <i>like</i> things to matter has no impact on whether they really do, but the obvious conclusion along the same lines that "saves" us is that you should <i>act</i> as if you believe in free will (e.g. enacting punishments) even if you don't. Either there is free will, so you behaved correctly, or there isn't, so you didn't really decide how to act anyway.