Our founding fathers were overwhelmingly Christian. Denying that does not advance rational discourse, it hinders it. Any cursory reading of the history of this nation makes it clear that the founding fathers were overwhelmingly Christian.
Yes Jefferson was a deist at one time in his life and yes he rewrote the Bible to accord with his belief system at that time.
But Thomas Jefferson was one man. Almost all of the remaining founders were Christian.
The evidence is quite clear on that and running around yelling "rational" will never change that fact.
Madison offered and passed a bill with criminal liability for breaking the sabbath.
Washington prayed for divine intervention, a notion unfamiliar to deists.
Fisher Ames, author of the 1st Amendment lived and worshipped in MAssachusetts which had a state established religion backed by AMes.
These things are not conjecture, they are facts.
You are correct, also why is it that most people alive have not even heard of Diesm? Well if you read the later writings of the Diesm followers- especially Thomas Jefferson they said it was a failure, because the whole premise was that man did not need religion to be moral; that man could be moral based on ideals and not belief in a higher power. They said later they found that not to be true. It sounded good, but did not work. If you study a great number of writings of Thomas Jefferson you will find that he was seeking the truth throughout his life and that is why today his writings seem confusing. In some he sounds like an athiest, believing religion has NO place in Government and in other writings he makes it plain that any Government that is not supported by people with a belief in a higher power cannot long exist.
"Yes Jefferson was a deist at one time in his life and yes he rewrote the Bible to accord with his belief system at that time.".
Actually, I've heard that it's a myth that Jefferson rewrote the bible according to his beliefs. What Jefferson did, was to compile an abridgement of the bible, for use in converting the Indians. Hardly a rewrite.