I can think nothing difficult about “arriving” at the position of atheism. We are all born without theistic belief (i.e. we are all born atheists), and many of us are taught to believe in God, just as we may be taught to believe in Santa Claus. Eventually we figure out that Santa Claus is just pretend. It’s a similar process for realizing that God is just pretend.[/quote]
Chris,
You are certainly right about being born athiests and so there being no difficulty in that (unless you were breech 
). From that point, though, the analogy with Santa Claus weakens, in my opinion. Belief in Santa Claus is different in many ways from belief in an active paternalistic god, especially as taught within Protestant Christianity. It is not only a matter of type, but one of degree. In the latter case, it is something that a person, by definition, bases his entire life on. It is something that affects all aspects of his life, often including social and professional, depending on where a person lives. It is something that takes years of indoctrination to instill and can take years of soul-searching and education to shed. Becoming a fully-indoctrinated religious person of any faith is a journey. Returning from that point (or traveling beyond it) is a journey as well. Every person’s journey is not the same, but for many, it is quite a trip.
Seeker4
A thread with related info:
[Forumosa - Taiwan's largest and most active Taiwan-oriented global online community in English … ory#300696](Religion throughout history - #4 by TainanCowboy
Good book on the subject, but tough to find:
“Leaving the Fold” - Ed Babinski (ISBN 0-87975-907-0)