These folks are NOT stupid; just mis- or un- informed about GOD.
You are right, but they also have a culture all their own, which is usually intolerant of religion (cf. Richard Dawkins or the kiddie version of Dawkins and his ilk — atheist posters to the Yahoo! Answers Religion and Spirituality forum) and tends to align with the worst excess of political correctness (yes, Bill Maher is an exception — a politically incorrect public atheist, but I think it goes with his job as a professional scoffer), so there is something a bit curious about my fellow committee member being forthrightly for real tolerance and people not being prickly about perceived slights.