MasonicMinute.com

5 Comments »

1. And this is why I love being a Freemason. We are free thinkers. We see the light and do not follow blind faith. We listen to all and find the facts for ourselves. We do not allow anothers to tell us the truth of things.

   Comment by Zef — January 10, 2008 @ 11:51 am

2. OK, I’d question the accuracy in that many of the “observances” of Jesus Christ are nowhere documented in the Bible, so whould be taken as “reverent” or “honoring”, not as fact.

   For example, nowhere in the Bible does it say anything about “3 kings” or “3 wisemen” visiting the baby Jesus. No specific number is given, and it is recorded that they visited him as a child, not a baby. And they visited his house not manger.

   Or December 25. Nowhere is that documented. It is a tradition that started, likely in response to existing celebrations at that time.

   My point is that so many criticize the Bible and Christianity without taking the time to read the Bible and actually learn what it says. So much of what is “claimed” to be Christian really is not.

   Comment by Steve — January 10, 2008 @ 2:21 pm

3. One problem I have with essays like this is that it equates Christians to Catholics. How many are aware that there were numerous “underground” Christians who followed strict doctrine who were persecuted and killed by the Catholic church?

   Also, be careful about the notion that the Council of Nicea “established” Christian doctrine. Some mistakenly believe that the council came up with the doctrine. It should be pointed out that the council merely “agreed” upon and “formalized” doctrine that had already been formed and taken as truth for almost 300 years.

   Finally, to carry the videos’ claims to the logical conclusion would be to assert that religion originates from the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians and even those pre-dating them, the core of which being reverence to the Sun. The Sun, which we all know as a physical, scientifically-explainable ball of fire, and certainly not God. So then, it can be asserted that there is no God and that religions are merely man’s attempt at understanding himself in relation to his surroundings. Of course, if that is the case, then a Freemason must reject this as a Freemason must believe in a supreme being.

   Comment by Steve — January 10, 2008 @ 3:09 pm

4. Steve: I like your observations of the content of these videos. It becomes too popular nowadays for some people to regard the statements of others that try to disprove the elements of the nature of religion as fact. They want the masses to not follow blindly to a religious tradition, but the probelm is that the people who buy into the “don’t believe the religous people” commentary follow just as blindly to those against religion without giving a second thought. I think the overall problem whether you are religious or not (to any degree) is the lack of proper study and reflection. I agree, most people that are fiercely against the elements recorded in the Bible have not properly read or studied the Bible so their view is just as flawed as the crazy televangelist who has more money around his wrist than their entire parrish.
   I disagree however with the idea that because the sun is a big ball of fire that can be scientifically explained that a Freemason cannot hold the sun in the same regard as another Supreme Being. If I decide that my Supreme Being is the empty Pepsi can in my room, my opinions of my Supreme Being are just as valid as anyone else’s. Revering a Pepsi can may seem odd, illogical and downright stupid to some people, but then again, anyone can say the same about any other supreme being. That being the case, considering the sun as your supreme being (rhetorically speaking of course) may actually be more rational and logical than those of the Judeo-Christian persuasion because it can also be explained by the advancement of the sciences, if you so desire. Great comments again, Steve. Keep ‘em coming and if I misunderstood your commentary in any way let me know.

   Comment by emeraldi42 — January 10, 2008 @ 3:56 pm

5. Dear Brothers,

   first I have to admit that I have only watched the first clip. Believe me, I am not a religious fundamentalist. However, I have spent enough time in history, classics, archeology, and religious studies classes to take major offence from this video, simply because what they present as “facts” is just total bullshit. Take any dictionary of the English language that elaborates a bit on the etymology of the words, and you will see how utterly absurd concoctions like “Sun(Horus)+Seth=Sunset” are. Take a good book on Mythology, or an easy-to-understand introduction to the comparative study of religions, and you will see how fantastic the list of alleged biographical similarities between deities/founders of religions is.

   One of the main problems of modern day freemasonry is that many brothers who feel threatened or are just annoyed by religious fundamentalists, but are not themselves specialists in the field of religion/science/history by academic standards, tend to embrace anything that claims to show the incoherence of traditional/fundamentalist religious ideology. In doing so, we Masons make ourselves vulnerable to the same fundamentalists et al. whose worldviews we try to expose in all their inconsistencies and dangerous narrow-mindedness. Please be careful, my brothers. Don’t convert our lodges, which are a place for the constant search for truth and understanding, into junk rooms filled with glittering half-truths and convenient lies — and ultimately, however unconsciously, into the laughing stock of every educated man.

   Comment by Wolfgang — February 10, 2008 @ 8:55 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.