Not that I spent much time thinking about it in the past but the belief in free will was something I was disillusioned from by hearing Sam Harris talk about it and then reading his book on the subject.

Now I believe there is just consciousness and its content. There is no "you" that's separate from this process that's authoring your decisions. Nah, everything follows from past events and the belief that you could have done otherwise is just an illusion. How could you have done otherwise. We already know what you did in this timeline. If we rewind back the universe without changing anything you'd just make the same choice again and again and again.

I'd say it has made me a much more empathic person overall. Hating someone for example is no longer compatible with my world view. Not liking, sure, but treating people as if they chose to be this way and could choose to be different but won't - that's bullshit.

Charles Whitman is a good example. Shot a bunch of people from a clock tower, left a suicide note saying he doesn't know why he does this and tells doctors to study his brain when he's dead. Well, they did and found a pecan-sized tumor near his amygdala that could very well explain this behaviour. Would you still hold Charles morally responsible after learning this? I wouldn't. I basically just live as if everyone has a brain tumor.