..If you take G-d out of Freemasonry it ceases to be Freemasonry...
That's a very interesting statement. As I have said, I intellectually see some of these irregular bodies as branches of the same tree while others new trees from the same seed. I certainly can respect them, and at the very least, agree to disagree.
I am posing myself a hypothetical thought experiment - would I be more likely to , in an imagined future world;
- Sit in lodge with a males openly acknowledged as atheists.
- Sit in lodge with females to have a belief in as supreme being.
I value our male space and fraternity - so I could see that #1 would perhaps be a smoother change socially, but for me, and reality is that in the ritual, the GAOTU is ever present and hence I think it more likely for and imagined future to see option 2 above, which would be more familiar to me than a Lodge without reference to the GAOTU.
On a surface level, the fraternal aspect of Freemasonry is so important, Freemasonry being a device to unite diverse men, but that unity is based in part of common faith in a personal GAOTU which is a strong underpinning to our movement, and while Freemasonry might help shape all our human relationships regardless of gender, politics, religion and even faith itself, when you delve deeper into our mysteries, one finds that our relationship with our personal God is also influenced or, at least, strongly supported by Freemasonry..
So I think you are very correct Brother when you say "If you take G-d out of Freemasonry it ceases to be Freemasonry"
Sometimes to understand what something is, you also need to understand what it is not; Freemasonry is much more than a social group, it is a path, and one where the GAOTU plays an important, and perhaps, the most important, part.