Prophecy Has No More Credibility than Miracles
Prophecy is in some respects like miracles, they both partake of the marvellous, they are both supernatural, they are both inconsistent with the order of nature. There is, however, in man, a pride and vanity which induces him to pretend to a knowledge of futurity, and that his knowledge is the result of a secret and mysterious intercourse with celestial powers.... The argument which goes to destroy the nature of a miracle, equally destroys the possibility of man's possessing from God a prophetic spirit; it is a violation of the laws of nature, a derangement of its natural and regular course, an infringement of the correct operation of the moral and mental faculties of our existence. --Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), Principles of Nature; or, A Development of the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species