Becoming An Atheist May Be A Long And Painful Process?

For me it wasn't that painful of a process. I have always been skeptical of it (even when I was very young), and I eventually just fully gave in to my skepticism and became an atheist. One of the main reasons I believed was due to my belief that an authority figure must be right (parents, priests, teachers, etc.). If becoming an atheist does cause pain, it is due to basing an entire world-view on illogical beliefs, and then becoming aware of it—which can be scary and confusing (remove the foundation of anything, and it causes problems).