Oh, yes, my grandparents were evangelical atheists and gave my mum all sorts of crap about converting to Christianity, so I try really hard not to be like that myself.

I agree that Deus Ex Machina is generally a bad device. I guess when I say I like gods in fiction I like beings who are worshipped as gods, since that brings up all sorts of interesting theological issues, but not actual omnipotent Gods since they do warp the story. (Thus I enjoyed bits of Stargate, for all it's crapness)