Is free will real?

[Mudhammam]

Okay, here's the elephant in the room.

You've identified both free-will and the "homunculus" of self as illusory. But why, knowing these things to be illusory, do you continue to act as though you have free will? How, in any non-forum-debate context, does this knowledge inform or guide your decision-making, your social relationships, etc? Why, for example, don't you study Buddhism or Hinduism, some schools of which share the same philosophy, but apply it in more depth?

Or. . . wait a minute. . . you're not turning into a closet Buddhist are you?

I don't act as though I have free will. I'm quite aware that each thought that pops into my brain is subsequent to a chain that I do not in any sense control, that senses fluctuate and internal changes prompt me this way or that. I'm not under the illusion. But I can distinguish my freedom in the sense of being able to sit and type out this message as opposed to a hot supermodel pointing a gun at my head and telling me to strip naked.