Free Will not a Problem for Atheists

It's often said we live in a Christian society and its ideas permeate. Atheists are sitting in God's lap to slap his face. As an atheist myself I'm supposed to find such things cringe but you can really see it in free will discourse, something that ought to be of no interest to atheists but can't help drawing them in. Like they remember there's an important philosophical debate here but can't remember why.

Free will is a major problem for Christians:

• God created you, including all your preferences and predispositions.
• He's even omniscient: he knows what you'll do in every scenario before you do it.
• And yet he'll punish and reward you eternally for what you "choose" to do.

Something seems off morally. God essentially made you do something and is now punishing you for it. But if you're an atheist what is there to be concerned about?

• You have preferences.
• You act according to those preferences.

Very simple. Very clean. This is compatibilism and the mainstream view among philosophers. The story is similar to the Christian story except lacking details:

• No details on where the preferences come from.
• No eternal punishment from the thing that gave you the preferences.

Without the second there's no real moral paradox. The paradox weakly returns with the state giving out punishment. But it's quite different: the state didn't have the option to give you different preferences. To the extent it can it tries quite hard to change them. So there isn't really a sense in which it's wronging you by punishing you for some wrong you did.