Here we go again

To say the least I have been on a streak of sorts. I have been reading, watching, and thinking about religion, or god, or spirituality, but mostly something I can't seem to pinpoint. My thought process about belief is this: I believe something because I have gathered evidence from my experience and from data collected an analyzed by others and presented in a credible manner. Well that's sort of confusing isn't it? That translates to: I believe something (proven to me) until I am given overwhelming evidence against it. That's pretty scientific I think which is how I like to look at the world in general. Certainly there are things which I do not require the scientific method to prove or justify. I mainly think of this in the context of emotions, which I know can be explained but are so amazingly powerful they are hard to deny, ignore, or be broken into the parts that make them. All of this aside for now, I have been thinking about religion and how it is a part of my life.
For lack of a better term I am an atheist. Or if you want a non-theist, or non-believer, or a godless heathen headed down the broad road to hell. Ok whatever. I just don't believe that there is an omniscient force that controls everything and has a personal interest in humans. So I was raised in a religious setting which I have discussed before, and as stated is probably the most influential aspect of my life so far. So I have a dilemma, and it occurs to me not only when discussing religious belief but any kind of belief. I will use the analogy that comes to mind the most. Here goes:
I am sitting around talking with my father about belief in God, the Christian one, and I present how I feel about it. My ideas are totally opposed to his. What I believe more or less disregards the purpose of most of his life. So say him and I have been having these hypothetical conversations for a few months or a year. I present all of the information and concepts that I have as does he. We go back and forth, blah blah blah. So, we arrive at a point where we really aren't discussing it so much and we are both able to assess what has been said and examine what we believe. A little while after that I still feel pretty strongly that there is no God and I'm ok with that and my life goes one la la la. No so much for my father. Now, everyday when he goes into work he thinks about what I have been saying. The evidence that I present that there is most likely no God (which cannot be proven or disproven for that mater). Well over time it starts to eat away at him, and he starts to do some research of his own. That being actually reading what people have written or expressed, and also looked into himself for answers. After a time (who knows how long) he realizes that there is now way he can believe in God, it just doesn't make sense. That leads to a personal crisis. Is what i have been doing for most of my life a futile endeavour? Look at all the time I wasted, all the opportunities I had to turn away because of my blind allegiance to an imaginary man. So he quits his job as a minister. He has no other skills and is too old, pretty much, to start a new career. His life is in shambles. Not only that but his family will find out and many will reject him, my mother goes crazy and sinks deeper into her already deep lifetime of depression, all because of me.
That is my problem, my dilemma, be it moral or ethical or both. I would feel bad mostly because I radically changed his belief, I destroyed his foundation. I convinced him that he is wrong. I probably fear this because I would have a similar reaction if someone told me one of my deepest beliefs was completely wrong and how about them apples? I also have an obsession with the value of the individual to make choices. It's almost as if I fear being influential. Right? Or maybe I don't have enough self-confidence to realize that i have the power to change how people think. This situation will not happen, most likely. But even in another context not related to metaphysical belief I think I would feel the same. I know for a fact that I have influenced people to change their lives, though i had no such intention. I guess I feel that being someone who changes people is a bad thing. I think of the oft mention fascist and nationalist dictators of the past who influenced people on a mass scale to commit awful things against other people just like themselves. I know I will never be very influential, but that fear still haunts me. I wouldn't want someone to abandon their beliefs because of me, who am I? Not anyone special or more special than anyone else I have ever known.
There is one real life example of this scenario that I know to have actually happened. I affected someone so much that another person who I had never met knew about me and knew my name. The person who I helped in changing thought that highly of me to tell other people long after our first meeting. My influence preceded me. My first reason was a laughing "Really? Crazy" as I am known to frequently say in circumstances less interesting. I still feel odd when I think about that. Who am I? I'm influential, if I believe it or not. I may just be good with words or appealing to people on some level but I can't say I try too hard. I try to be honest and fair, and try to see things from other angles. This proves that anyone can be influential. I just hope that when I am that it creates a net positive in the world.