Free Will is a logical (and ethological) impossibility. What we have is a simulation of free will, complete with choices and variables, etc. -- just like our American illusion of freedom. But having choices is not the same as having free will. Only with perfect knowledge would our wills be anywhere close to free, and even then our decisions would be constrained by the perfection of our knowledge. (Thanks, Geo).
We want to think we have free will because the alternative is instinctively unnacceptable. In order to feel safe, we need to feel in control of our destiny. Untimately however, our behavior, thoughts, beliefs, and choices will be made in accordance to our programming, both genetic and conditional. My hound dog is genetically programmed to track rabbits. She is also conditionally programmed to stay out of my recliner (at least when I'm around).
We respond to stiumli as do all animals in the manner which natural selection has deemed best suited for the survival of our species. For reasons we have yet to fully understand, this obviously includes the need we have to intellectually pursue answers to unanswerable questions.
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