warmonger1981 wrote:They claim to not be a religion but if you read their works they profess it is. You just can't talk about any specific religious views or dogma. That's where the Grand Architect comes from.
Note that I am not a Mason. I'm actually a Knight of Columbus. Now the Knights of Columbus is a "Catholic" organization. But the Knights of Columbus is not a religion. One could argue that Freemasonry is rooted in Deism. Now Deism is generally considered a "religion" but it should also be pointed out that a lot of Deistic notions did manage to filter into a number or Protestant Christian denominations after the American Revolution in addition to the basic "religion" of the deists at that time, Unitarianism. But unlike the Knights of Columbus, whose members are all tied to a specific church and religion, the Masons are not.
Religious sentiment is a natural part of all Fraternal orders, from the Elks to the Moose. But they also can claim not to be "religions" in the strict sense of the word.
Supreme Being, Divine Watchmaker, Grand Architect of the Universe, and Nature's God are all Deist terms for God. It is important to note that Freemasonry was born and grew because of the Age of Enlightenment. The need to remove the established "church" required some other organization to fill the void and Freemasonry was the best new institution to do precisely that.