Determinism and personal responsibility??

Question

I don’t believe in a supernatural force or god who interferes in the lives of mankind, therefore I think from this it follows that I must take a hard determinist view of the world (By that I mean there can’t be such a thing as free will as that would require a supernatural phenomenon(force/god) to exist which would defy nature and logic) -> It makes sense to me that free will is just a complex “illusion” of our brain similar to consciousness and emotions.

If you agree with what I have said above then my question is how do you reconcile the idea of personal responsibility with hard determinism?

Eg:

• How can we punish murders for murdering, it was out of their control in their genes etc

• How can we praise athletes for being naturally gifted at a sport

• How can we blame the suicide bombers who think they are doing God’s work through religious indoctrination (and how can we blame the people who did this indoctrination!)

• Why do we thank people that help us, they couldn’t not have helped us so there is no reason to

• How can we punish the psychopath who doesn’t understand “right” from “wrong”

These all seem like terrible inconsistencies to me that I find a struggle to rationalise. I don’t think it is acceptable enough to just say that that is the way it has to be otherwise society wouldn’t function as then one would be living to a lie much like you say these religious people are.

(Even if you don’t agree with my hard determinism view totally, you can still appreciate the huge impact that genes/surroundings have on our actions.....so the same point stands....that even if we have free will, it can be and probably is so suppressed by our genes and surrounding influences that it becomes irrelevant leading to the bullet points above)

no answers from people who are just gona say "open your mind and turn to god!!!" .... how bout YOU open ur minds ;)

thx

Answer 1

You are the illusion,a bag of water and bones i think your brain grew to large.

Answer 2

Here is my answer:

The Determinism about the human life related with astrology, genetics, circumstances, religion and similar factors produce some kind of behavior, but if you develop your conscience through  the education, discipline, respect and courage you can change the inertia of your heritage from your family, society or religion.It's not easy,but reachable.

Answer 3

As the human genome is better understood, I think society will treat, rather than incarcerate, most of its criminals.  But genes turn off and others turn on, depending on our lifestyle choices.  An athlete could be lauded for the training required to excel in his sport, genes aside.  

Even identical twins don't lead identical lives.