I was reading recently about Einstein. He was a strict determinist and didn’t believe in free will at all. In fact, he doubted whether God had free will, and said his greatest goal was to find out if God had any choice in the way he made the Universe.
Most of the founders of quantum mechanics like Einstein and Schroedinger rejected it. They thought it was a stop gap until the true theory was found.
Though I don’t agree with Einstein’s philosophy, it served him well for most of his career.
Your post, and your mention of free will is interesting.
It seems to me that a sensible person would tend to accept body and mind. Some philosophers have asked if we might be body only, or mind only. I don’t think either position can be disproved. Still, a sensible person would reject those positions.
The process of scientific inquiry has generally focused on the natural, the physical. Atheists have latched onto this generally successful endeavor, and falsely claimed it as their exclusive domain.
I think few atheists understand the implications of consistent main-line atheism. It means a rejection of the unseen: free will, making a decision, right and wrong, self-awareness, mind, beauty in music, art or nature, kindness, love. Main-line atheism may “explain” these things, as in explaining a mirage. Fundamentally, it denies they exist or are true.
Main-line atheism is philosophy, not science. It can not be disproven, or proven. At the end of the day, a sensible person must reject it. We simply have too much experience, data if you will, that the unseen elements (listed above) are real