There was an evangelical movement that flourished in the colonies during the 1760s and early 70s, but I don't think many of the founding fathers were influenced by it. Most of them were intellectuals, which would have meant either that they were influenced by more established church principles or by the Enlightenment, or (mud in all our eyes) by both. But the evangelism of the day was not highly respected by the intellectual elites, which would have included the so-called founding fathers.
I don't think the majority were Deists either, but several of the most important founders were (Jefferson, Madison, and Paine, for example), and much of the cutting edge philosophy of the day was Deistic. So, even the Theists would have been influenced by deistic thought, even though the two schools had not yet been fused into the general shoulder shrug version of religion tht refuses to see the difference today.
The Enlightenment began well begore the 1800s, and had a profound impact on the political thinking of the founders.
Defender, I think you are thinking more about the Declaration of Independance when you look for a document that includes a number of direct references to God. Remember that document is not the plan for American government, however, it is simpply a document (largely rhetorical) announcing the separation of the 13 colonies from Britain. The Constitution itself does not contain those themes. This is a common trick used by those who want to assert that America is a Christian country, to cite the Declaration and ignore the Constitution. They do this knowing that for most Americans the two documents are essentially part of the same fuzzy memory of their high school history lesons. It's a deliberate deception, and a highly successful one at that.
I don't know that the landed gentry would have been less susceptible to religious nonsense, particularly since they were also likely to have key church positions. That wasn't the idea at the time Sauron, though I share your impatience with some contemporary religious rhetoric.
The Founding Fathers may not have had the same range of different beliefs as we have in American today, but they certainly were not part of a Judeo-Christian mindset, and certainly didn't advocate a judeo-Christian ethic. Remember, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews did not get along very well in those days. It hadn't been that long since people were openly killing each other over precisely those differences. The notion of a common Judeo-Christian heritage is largely a post-WW II phenomenon.
Oh, and I suppos the original point here is that creationists take advantage of all this ignorance to promote junk science? Well, I'm not going to challenge that one, but I thought the main point should be spelled out. Did I get it right?
