Quote (card_sultan @ 24 Feb 2017 21:36)
So your saying the organization has nothing really to do with Religion - but for sure the symbol is for the the Religious sign of God, um ok. :blink:
Why is every single Nasa astronaut a Freemason, kinda odd dont you think for an organization who wants you to think all their members are on the brink of death?
https://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1352478522_pic-washington_baphomet.gifIt seems like you didnt understand my point in this. My view on it is that this is the official guidelines:
Quote (http://www.msana.com/religion.asp)
Statement on Freemasonry and Religion
Prepared by the Masonic Information Center
Basic Principles. Freemasonry is not a religion, nor is it a substitute for religion. It requires of its members a belief in God as part of the obligation of every responsible adult, but advocates no sectarian faith or practice. Masonic ceremonies include prayers, both traditional and extempore, to reaffirm each individual's dependence on God and to seek divine guidance. Freemasonry is open to men of any faith, but religion may not be discussed at Masonic meetings.
The Supreme Being. Masons believe that there is one God and that people employ many different ways to seek, and to express what they know of God. Masonry primarily uses the appellation, "Grand Architect of the Universe," and other non-sectarian titles, to address the Deity. In this way, persons of different faiths may join together in prayer, concentrating on God, rather than differences among themselves. Masonry believes in religious freedom and that the relationship between the individual and God is personal, private, and sacred.
Volume of the Sacred Law. An open volume of the Sacred Law, "the rule and guide of life," is an essential part of every Masonic meeting. The Volume of the Sacred Law in the Judeo/Christian tradition is the Bible; to Freemasons of other faiths, it is the book held holy by them.
The Oath of Freemasonry. The obligations taken by Freemasons are sworn on the Volume of the Sacred Law. They are undertakings to follow the principles of Freemasonry and to keep confidential a Freemason's means of recognition. The much discussed "penalties," judicial remnants from an earlier era, are symbolic, not literal. They refer only to the pain any honest man should feel at the thought of violating his word.
Freemasonry Compared with Religion. Freemasonry lacks the basic elements of religion: (a) It has no dogma or theology, no wish or means to enforce religious orthodoxy. (b) It offers no sacraments. (c) It does not claim to lead to salvation by works, by secret knowledge, or by any other means. The secrets of Freemasonry are concerned with modes of recognition, not with the means of salvation.
Freemasonry Supports Religion. Freemasonry is far from indifferent toward religion. Without interfering in religious practice, it expects each member to follow his own faith and to place his Duty to God above all other duties. Its moral teachings are acceptable to all religions.
Prepared by the Masonic Information Center(12/93)
Revised (9/98)
Letting atheists in is almost like letting women in(yy women not getting in is about eros, but still..).
Also(i dont know the terms in english, so sorry about that) masonry is split between countries, lodges in different countries follow guidelines that the heads of the country make(usually the differences are quite small, like for example in some places there are only 3 degrees, i think in USA they are split in different states as well, but not sure), then separate lodges can make up some of their own rules, but they need to be accepted by the countrys(or maybe states?) main lodge. Some of the lodges take a bit too much freedom on what they do and they might not be accepted by the official guidelines. Im not sure how it works in the big picture tho.
And what comes to astronauts being masons. Well, most of the successful people are masons. Thats simply because they help each others and people in good positions will favour a fellow mason over someone who is not a mason. Something like getting to go to space is such a privilege that basically you dont get there unless you are a mason because there are so many masons in the positions somewhere on the line of selecting the astronauts.
I dont get where you got the idea that i think that masons want people to think that all of their members ar ein the brink of death. Its a fact that masonry used to be more popular than it is now, which means that the average age goes up and up and more of the old members die than new ones join. This is just one reasons why some lodges are bending the rule about mandatory belief in god.