I don't believe that freewill holds up on a philosophical level. Everything we choose or do comes from an external cause. Some causes may be the weather, your childhood, how you feel the world treated you growing up, your parents, your genes, etc. There's always a cause to our decisions or choices so I don't believe we are completely liberated in that aspect. I do believe we make choices just not liberally without any initial cause.
I wouldn't say that it matters to much either way. On a philosophical level it's obviously important but on a practical level I don't think a lack of free will would make a difference. We havn't noticed so far and I'd say if it is proven that free will is incorrect life will likely continue as it has.
I think it's an illusion. Just an idea. Something to thnk about when you're stoned. And the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I don't have freewill.
Free will is possible, but most people haven't fully tapped into it. Most people are bound by conditioning, and trapped within a system of repeated mind-patterns. These things can lose their hold on you, and when you lose your conditioning and repeated mind-patterns, in part, your ego, then true free will opens up to you.
I think freewill is like the ether. Something that needed to exist, in order for something else to exist. But wasn't there, so we just proposed that it's there, until we actually believe that it's there.
Why did Eve eat an apple? To know. Edit: In no way am I supporting any religious beliefs with this rhetorical question..