A Deist's Moral Indictment of Religion

To charge the Creator of the world with such a violation of all justice [as seen in the Old Testament's conquest story], with such a dereliction of every humane sentiment, is to deprive him of all his moral perfections, and to make him equal in villany to Moses and Joshua, or any of the eminent murderers whose names have been recorded in the bloody history of the human race. It is strange to observe, that in reasoning upon theological subjects, men are disposed to abandon the correct ground of moral decision, and contend that those actions which would be unjust in man, would nevertheless be just when performed by the Creator. This is a mode of reasoning that perverts all the faculties of our existence, destroys the moral excellence of Deity, and overturns the foundation of principle. In all beings that are intelligent, moral principle is the same; and God has no more right to violate it, than any other being. He is essentially bound by the properties of his existence, and his character cannot be sustained without an undeviating attention to the immutable principle of justice.

--Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), Principles of Nature; or, A Development of 

the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species