I agree that constantly making assertions without any evidence doesn't make it right. I noticed you didn't say I was doing this, because I'm not, I'm using evidence. A technical paper is not the only form of evidence. Merely the fact that a baseball doesn't teleport around a baseball game is evidence of cause-effect, it behaves regularly. There is evidence for determinism everywhere in the real world. In essence, there is evidence that everything in the real world is caused by all previous events up to that point. A free will decision cannot be made if all decisions are a consequence of previous events, because previous events have one singular finite past, they do not change.
I know nothing is pointless because everything that ever happens affects the series of events, affects its surroundings. Merely breathing air displaces that air for other lifeforms, it makes an impact on the universe in some way, no matter how small. No action is free of consequence, everything is interacting with one-another.
I already told you how life has purpose and makes it purposeful, I do not 'appear' to be using the word, I am using the word in my recent post.
the definition of purpose as I used it:
that reason being that previous events created (from pre-existing parts) lifeforms/humans, in totalitythe reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
humans are just complex arrangements of simpler parts, the reason humans exist is the same reason those parts exist, those parts are also less complex arrangements of even simpler parts
any given thing, a star, a planet, an ant, a human, is defined by its own nature, that is how we tell it apart from everything else, but they are all made up of the same stuff fundamentally, and all obey the same fundamental physics, and are equally important. Without planets, stars, etc. humans could not exist, and without intelligent life like humans, a pepsi can could not exist. In determinism, there is no negative connotation to anything; nor an inherent positive connotation to anything, the purpose of all existence is whatever was required for it to exist in the first place. For a human, that means not dying at least until you have a child which can fend for itself, a way to preserve that type of DNA, for a star, that means not dissipating instantly, a way to preserve the complex arrangement of the core of a star, so that it does not break down to its individual parts. These are not intelligent choices humans or stars make, it is their nature, defined by what makes up them up. What makes them up is defined by previous events that led to its formation.
I keep mentioning 'magic' because that is what free will is; it is the notion that although everything else behaves according to its past 100%, humans have some kind of magical power to rise above this, even though there is no evidence to support this; only human emotion and your buddies patting you on the back for such a feel-good idea.
Basically, if we were able to time travel (which is impossible), but if we were, people who believe in free will believe that if they go back in time merely as an observer not taking up any physical body, they would see things like a river flow the exact same way that it did the first time. They would see deer behave the exact same way they did the first time, but somehow, they think humans have the capacity to make different decisions, given the same exact circumstances.
In reality, determinism is right; choices, no matter how seemingly vast, can only have one finite result, and whatever reasons a person has for making any given choice, is completely determined by all past events that lead up to that moment. That does not mean merely human memories are events, everything, including what the person ate, how many synapses have fired in the brain (resulting in some memory loss or fading of ideas), etc. adds up to what that person will do at any given moment, just as all external factors like the exact composition of the sun determines what surface activity it will have; no matter how complex, when narrowed down, everything behaves according to cause-effect. You cannot merely zoom out and look at something complex as a whole, and surmise that magic is going on, when the individual parts do not behave magically.