"Among the Most Destructive Causes"

The establishment of theological systems, claiming divine origin, has been among the most destructive causes by which the life of man has been afflicted. History furnishes an awful picture of the sad and fatal effects of fanaticism among the nations of the earth; but history furnishes only the exterior; there is a deeper internal wound, which superstition has inflicted in the bosom of society, subversive of all moral sympathy and the fairest traits in the character of man.

--Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), Principles of Nature; or, A Development of
the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species

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