Are We Really Biochemical Robots?: A Critique of Determinism and Sam Harris' Crusade Against Free Will

Biochemical Robots is an unflinching critique of determinism and its principles. It reviews the arguments against free will and exposes their flaws. It draws rare attention to the fundamental contradiction at the heart of determinism - if our beliefs are due to causal force, then determinist beliefs are equally the product of causal force. If we believe whatever causal forces dictate, then determinists were predestined to believe in determinism and can't believe otherwise. Determinism undermines all truth claim by reducing them to causal force – including its own. The book poses the ultimate challenge to How can we accept anything they say if their beliefs are based on causal force, not truth?

Sam Harris is among the leading new media intellectuals who has dedicated himself to spreading the causal faith. His book Free Will confidently declared "we know that determinism, in every sense relevant to human behavior, is true." In effect, we are nothing more than biochemical robots who don't control our thoughts or actions. Lawrence makes a compelling argument that determinist doctrine is conceptually problematic, scientifically dubious, and self-contradictory.