@neologist,
free will is a matter of perspective.
when you are presented with a choice, you start thinking of the options. options come from memory. the choosing process is by preference. preference occurs involuntarily, as an evolutionary survival mechanism; the infant learns to love the parents' smiles and hate their frowns.
even though in adulthood, the choosing process appears much more complex and individual, it is still an inbuilt, involuntary process. you can't actually make yourself like something if you don't like it. if you make yourself like it, it is only because you like something else more which requires you to like it. for example, you may force yourself to like healthy food in order to lose weight, but the preference to lose weight is primary and involuntary.
basically, people identify with their consciousness. the consciousness automatically likes and dislikes things, and people define that as their own likes and dislikes. then, whatever they do, they subsequently define as their free will. in that sense, free will exists to the individual.
in a deeper sense, because the choosing process is involuntary to our consciousness, who has the free will? we notice that preferences are happening in our consciousness, but cannot control them. therefore, if free will exists, it only exists to something else other than ourselves. ie. intelligence itself, which is beyond our individual control, has free will. some people might define that as god having free will.
in an absolute sense, one can question the very reality of all appearances and concepts, and indeed consciousness itself. at this point, free will becomes irrelevant and meaningless.
