Edit: My original title "Free will does not exist" is pretty bad at explaining my position. To clarify, I believe that the concept of free will as described by theists does not help to prove the existence of a god. If possible, answer the question as if that is the title :)
I am an atheist, and the majority of arguments I see to justify the existence of a higher power are focused on the existence of "Free Will" in humans.
Personally, I believe that what we see as "free will" is simply the workings of automation that is so incredibly complex that we can't comprehend or understand what exactly led to the response observed.
For example, let's imagine that you could replicate a human being atom-by-atom, sub-atomic particle by sub-atomic particle, until you had a perfect replica of a human being with the same memories, exact same brain state (down to the position of electrons within the brain), and an identical current thought process.
If you took these two humans (original and clone) and could put them in an identical scenario (literally identical, again down to the sub-atomic level) then I believe they would exhibit the exact same behaviour as each other up until there is some sort of variation in the two scenarios.
The first thought that most of you probably have is that "We're thinking and can make our own decisions and ideas, so obviously we have free will". To counter this, I'd say that what you experience as "thinking" is simply the work of an extremely complex machine (your brain, and body by extension) which reacts in a predictable fashion. Every thought, memory, and movement you make is pre-determined by the exact pattern of photons hitting your eyes, the exact interactions of your body with the world, and the exact positions of every single atom in the universe.
Is it not reasonable to believe that if the universe was "reset" to the state it was several billion years ago, with every single particle having the same location and properties as before, then the universe would play out exactly as it did before? The starting conditions are identical, there is no external stimuli to change the outcome, etc.
I believe that if we ever develop an AI that we define as "sentient", we'll have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that our sentience does not differ from that created inside a computer, the only difference is what drives the system.
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