To be fair, some atheists do deny the existence of any kind of deity, not just the traditional Gpd of established religions. The physicist Lawrence Krauss, for example, wrote a book called “A Universe from Nothing” – and a lecture based on it – which postulates that the known phenomenon of quantum fluctuations in a vacuum is evidence that matter and energy can come into existence from nothing, and claims (incorrectly, in my view) that this is analogous to how the entire universe came into being.
That said, to my knowledge there are no atheists trying to meddle in the curriculum of public schools the way that the Christian right is always doing. That allegation is a politically motivated falsehood with no basis in fact.
I think tradition has it that the event occurred outdoors.
(BTW, wrt that passage, whatever happened to “Thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to the test”?)
I know the thread has wandered, but coming back to the OP, I grew up as a highly devout Mormon in Utah in the 70s and 80s.
Reflecting the commonly held belief, Joseph Smith has a revelation that explicitly quotes Gad as saying that the constitution was divinely inspired, and the founding fathers were raised up by God for the purpose of writing it.
My obviously very Mormon AP History teacher couldn’t come right out and preach about it, but he came pretty close.
As a devout Mormon, anything was a sign of divine intervention. If you haven’t ever been a believer, you wouldn’t understand. I was surrounded by really intelligent people who had blinders when it came to Mormonism. They would never be as unquestioning about other aspects of their lives, but they would accept the most ridiculous things.
Extremely devout (even zealous) non-LDS Christians can be the same way. They see signs of God’s hand everywhere.
Yes, I didn’t mean that only Mormons can be true believers (although they think so). I meant that devote believers of any faith can have a deep belief that goes well beyond any rational sense.