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"What is the purpose of God in Freemasonry?"

pointwithinacircle2

Rapscallion
Premium Member
Why is a man who does not believe in God unfit to become a Mason? How is a man who believes in God different from a man who does not? Why is this difference so important to Freemasonry?

Having asked these questions we can sit back and watch the religious answers pour out. But by taking the stance that a man's personal religious beliefs are not important to Masonry, it has in effect stated that the answers to these questions are not a religious ones.

The answer to these questions must in fact be a universal answer, one that would apply to all men regardless of their religion.

So I pose the question "What is the purpose of God in Freemasonry?"
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
Boundaries keep our passions within due bounds. I like to imagine a picture of water. First I pour it onto a plate without boundaries and the water flows away. Next I pour it into a tumbler and the water builds up to the top of the glass. The difference between musical scales and songs in keys versus the twelve tome scaleless system imposes a similar pattern of limits and strength within them.

It is a contradiction that by discriminating on religion we led and lead the world in religious freedom. I suggest we do this by establishing boundaries, limits, and by using those limits to become strong within those limits. It's not that a man without faith is different. It's that by setting a limit we can be stronger within that limit than we can by not setting limits in the first place. It's that we ourselves are different for having made the choice.

As such it's the same principle for tiled meetings for members versus open meetings for anyone, admitting men but not women, admitting men of faith but not atheists.

If God is light like the Sun (moving from metaphorical to literal is usually a bad idea), then Masonry is a lens for focusing God's light on ourselves. Not using God for a purpose, but using ourselves differently with God as a power source. Or some such image that moves back from literal to metaphorical again.

As we all follow the divine in our own chosen way and we don't discuss how in our assemblies I don't think we give a purpose to God in that sense. Likely the better question is "Why do we exclude atheists?" Same set of circumstance, different line of thought. Language can express ideas that can't be answered and I think "What is the purpose of God in Freemasonry" is in that class. It's why I prefer "Why do we exclude atheists?" instead. It's a question I don't think leads down a hole.
 

Brother JC

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
To have Faith, regardless of the brand, implies a moral compass. That might be considered the "good" in the old chestnut. Freemasonry's "system of morality" then has a firm foundation in making the good man "better," whereas an immoral man cannot be made better as there is nowhere for the system to take root.
 
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Warrior1256

Site Benefactor
To have Faith, regardless of the brand, implies a moral compass. That might be considered the "good" in the old chestnut. Freemasonry's "system of morality" then has a firm foundation in making the good man "better," whereas an immoral man cannot be made better as there is nowhere for the system to take root.
Great answer!
 
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pointwithinacircle2

Rapscallion
Premium Member
Thank you to everyone who took the time to consider this question, and special thanks to everyone who took the time to answer it. I have enjoyed reading your answers to what I consider to be a most difficult question. My view on this question is in line with what has already been said. One way to express the idea is to say that when a man has accepted the concept of God he has undergone a fundamental change in his outlook on life. He has accepted that their is more to Truth than his own viewpoint (or his own ego), and more than the viewpoints of other men (or their collective egos). I believe it is the first step in accepting that an individual man is only a small part, and that it is by accepting this and working with others (other small parts) that together they can build something greater than themselves. I believe that one of the great lessons of architecture is that many small pieces come together to form something greater than themselves.

I have an old book in which Pike says that Force, to be of value, must be directed. Each man is a force in the world. How will that force be directed? If I direct it in accordance with my own will, the good I can do is limited by what I know. By accepting the concept of God I begin a search for a concept of good that is greater than my own. I open the door to the possibility that I can be of service to a Knowledge and Wisdom that is greater than my own, even without completely understanding the nature of that Knowledge and Wisdom. In short, Faith allows me to call upon an internal source of power that the intellect cannot command.
 
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BroBook

Premium Member
The purpose of G.O.D. In freemasonry to me is He/They is/are the support; Gomer, Oz & Debar if my memory serves me correctly, without wisdom, strength & beauty there can be no masonry!!!
 

JohnnyFlotsam

Premium Member
So I pose the question "What is the purpose of God in Freemasonry?"

There isn't one, as your question frames the definition of "God". Freemasonry gives great importance to a belief in Deity, but offers no opinion (for lack of a better term) on the nature of that Deity, nor on any given collection of dogma purporting to reveal such nature.
So the better question might be, "What is the purpose of the requirement that a Mason profess belief in Deity?"
IMO, it speaks to the man's humility, in his recognizing that there are things far greater than himself. We (our fraternity) start from there and then spend a great deal of time instructing our new brothers on the importance of and various means to, gain what understanding we can of the GAoTU and Her work.
 

BryanMaloney

Premium Member
The definition of "God" implicit in your question is, at very least an anthropomorphic spiritual entity distinct from humanity. However, it is possible for someone to acknowledge a "God" acceptable to Freemasonry that need not meet those requirements. I could see a philosophical deist whose "God" would be a "principle of creation and improvement". A "creator" in a sense but not necessarily an explicit "being". Prayer to this "God" would inspire the person praying. Studying this "God" would improve the student, but this "God" would not be a "being" independent of those who pray or those who study. Nevertheless, it could still be acceptable to Masonry. It is the "stupid atheist" who cannot be trusted, the one whose being is predicated on "none are higher than I". One who admits to a higher principle, even if only "in principle", has humility.
 

pointwithinacircle2

Rapscallion
Premium Member
Bryan, while I agree with your analysis, I still fail to see how my question in any way references an anthropomorphic being. Unless of course people are assuming that in our society the word God itself is anthropomorphic.
 

BryanMaloney

Premium Member
Bryan, while I agree with your analysis, I still fail to see how my question in any way references an anthropomorphic being. Unless of course people are assuming that in our society the word God itself is anthropomorphic.

"Assuming" that in our society is like "assuming" that most people in the USA in 2014 speak English to at least some extent. In our society, God is an anthropomorphic being by default. One must note otherwise if not using "God" in this way. It would be like me using "competent" to mean "able to take up foreign DNA" and not explaining that. Such use of "competent", while valid in some professional contexts, is so far off the norm for the word that it behooves me to explain this as I use the word unless I am writing an appropriate professional communication in my field.
 

JohnnyFlotsam

Premium Member
Bryan's observation is most astute, but I was really looking at your implicit notion that any particular deity, especially one spelled with an upper case "G", has "a place" in Masonry, as if the fraternity itself recognized such a thing and that our labors are somehow liturgical in nature. If such was not your intent, my apologies, but asking about "the purpose" rather seems to assume a thing better defined than something we encourage each Brother to define for himself.
 
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pointwithinacircle2

Rapscallion
Premium Member
I find it interesting that everyone who has commented thinks that I am talking about "their" god (lower case "g"). Perhaps I should have used the word deity.
 

Brother JC

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
I specifically used Deity in an attempt to be all-inclusive. My "god" is no more important than any other Brother's "god."
 

GKA

Premium Member
A man must recognize a higher authority than himself, it amounts to a line in the sand where somewhere there is a limit to what you can justify, The concept of God as the author of morality specifies that limit.
 

coachn

Coach John S. Nagy
Premium Member
Why is a man who does not believe in God unfit to become a Mason?
If you mean by this, why is a man who does not have the faculty to imagine and believe in something that could be labeled "God", the answer should be obvious: He lacks the faculty and affinity necessary to do things that Freemasons need to do to do their work.

As a reminder: Faith is the ability to imagine Possibility. Hope is the ability to commit to the smallest of Probabilities. Love is the ability to Invest in what is Possible, no matter how small the Probability. If a man lacks these abilities, participation in Freemasonry would not come easy; it's simply not a good fit.
How is a man who believes in God different from a man who does not?
He is capable and engages in Faithful acts. (Faith being the choice to believe in something regardless of evidence for or against it.)
Why is this difference so important to Freemasonry?
Freemasonry is a Theatrical Society. For one to play along harmoniously with the other actors, one must suspend Disbelief, Engage and Play the Part regardless of any Evidence against what should be obvious to those who cannot.
So I pose the question "What is the purpose of God in Freemasonry?"
Marketing, administration, endorsement, common threads, and "the biggie"... allows one to engage in plays that one can easily assume supports one's beliefs, or at least is in harmony with one's beliefs.
 

hanzosbm

Premium Member
To me, Freemasonry gives a man the tools to better understand his place in the universe and his relation to God. What is the point if one does not believe in God to begin with?
 

pointwithinacircle2

Rapscallion
Premium Member
Why is a man who does not believe in God unfit to become a Mason?
If you mean by this, why is a man who does not have the faculty to imagine and believe in something that could be labeled "God", the answer should be obvious: He lacks the faculty and affinity necessary to do things that Freemasons need to do to do their work.

As a reminder: Faith is the ability to imagine Possibility. Hope is the ability to commit to the smallest of Probabilities. Love is the ability to Invest in what is Possible, no matter how small the Probability. If a man lacks these abilities, participation in Freemasonry would not come easy; it's simply not a good fit.
OK, Coach, I'm right there with you. (By the way, that's one of the best explanations of Faith, Hope, and Love I have ever read) Now the hard question. How do you square all that with your statements (forgive me, I couldn't find the original statements to quote them) which seem to say that we are theatrical society from the middle ages? Unless by "middle ages" you mean 1717 which appears to be the year when most of the old records and memories were destroyed and a new, more politically expedient Freemasonry was born. Your answer "He lacks the faculty and affinity necessary to do things that Freemasons need to do to do their work" indicates to me that you understand that within the theatrical society there is something more is happening.

I wonder. Perhaps we are an Initiatory Fraternity for a reason, perhaps true Initiation requires the three qualities you listed, perhaps God is the touchstone for those qualities, perhaps Initiation effects the individual in specific ways. If our little theater is doing all that then we seem to have a purpose.
 

coachn

Coach John S. Nagy
Premium Member
OK, Coach, I'm right there with you. (By the way, that's one of the best explanations of Faith, Hope, and Love I have ever read)

Thanks! It's straight out of the Building Better Builders Workshops that I do around the country.

Now the hard question. How do you square all that with your statements (forgive me, I couldn't find the original statements to quote them) which seem to say that we are theatrical society from the middle ages?
See below...
Unless by "middle ages" you mean 1717 which appears to be the year when most of the old records and memories were destroyed and a new, more politically expedient Freemasonry was born. Your answer "He lacks the faculty and affinity necessary to do things that Freemasons need to do to do their work" indicates to me that you understand that within the theatrical society there is something more is happening.

Yep!

I wonder. Perhaps we are an Initiatory Fraternity for a reason, perhaps true Initiation requires the three qualities you listed, perhaps God is the touchstone for those qualities, perhaps Initiation effects the individual in specific ways. If our little theater is doing all that then we seem to have a purpose.

LOL! YES! Freemasonry is a Theatrical Society with a Moral Purpose! Unfortunately, we have 300 years of Brothers thinking that it was something other than this.

Freemasonic theater (its plays, aka Rituals) is based upon literature gathered by those who formed the Premier Grand Lodge and augmented this collection to create scripts that allowed new members to go through what was imagined to be what Stonecrafters went through. But we all know that they are not what Stonecrafters went through. It's all made up!

We don't care though.

It's total immersion life action role playing at its finest and all under the guise of "masonry" as it has been reinvented for the masses. Having "God" sown into it is just good marketing, support, etc. This lends to support the significance of the plays for believers - the target market. How else are you going to have players new to the plays be drawn in to the opportunity to immerse themselves into what is offered. Shear Genius!
 
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