Supernatural Schemes

If the Christian religion be true, the proofs ought not only to be universally exhibited, but they ought also to be universally convincing; and this results essentially from the nature of that evidence which is employed to substantiate the system. It is not strange that man should often doubt, where human testimony is the only ground of conviction, but when the proof rises higher and claims a divine origin, one would suppose that the mind must necessarily yield to the force of such divine testimony, otherwise the means made use of by divine power for the accomplishment of the end, are inadequate and deficient; but as no such imbecility can justly be attributed to a being possessing infinite wisdom, it is to be presumed, that the exhibition of evidence in the present case ought to be complete and satisfactory, universal and every where convincing. If human projects miscarry, this failure is to be ascribed to the imperfection of human nature; and the believer ought to perceive that he does virtually ascribe to his God the same kind of imperfection, whenever he acknowledges a defeat in the completion of any object, the producing of which was deemed important in the mind of the Supreme Being. It were less pernicious for man to believe in no God, than to believe in one that is wicked and imperfect, partial and vindictive, establishing his systems upon no principle of distributive justice, and acting upon principles neither correct, beneficial, nor universally understood. Those immoral monsters to whom men in all ages have paid adoration, have served only to corrupt the morality of the human heart, and exhibit examples destructive to the cause of virtue. Such, however, is the character of all those beings who have been made the authors of supernatural schemes of religion.

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

the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species