Apostles of Fanaticism and Superstition

This religion claiming with so much imperious austerity,

celestial origin, has not been less injurious to the cause of

morality, than to that of science. Its fundamental principles are of

a nature destructive to all moral virtue, its doctrines openly

disavow all benefit resulting from the practice of a genuine

morality. Faith, atonement, and supernatural grace are the essential

requisites of eternal happiness, and these have nothing to do with

the mental or moral energies of our nature. The cultivation of our

minds, the improvement of our faculties, and the performance of moral

duties, by which alone man can expect or deserve to enjoy permanent

felicity, are not considered as the proper means of acquiring it; but

a blind an unintelligible faith, a mysterious and inexplicable belief

in carnage and murder, are to become the objects of our highest

admiration! "Not of works," says Paul, (the apostle of fanaticism and

superstition) "lest any man should boast." And again, "It is not of

him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth

mercy." When maxims such as these are fundamental in any system of

religion, what beneficial effects can result from it? It goes to the

destruction of all moral effects. It represents man as incapable of

performing any virtuous action.

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