What may we say regarding the historic intersection of men who were both Deists as well as Freemasons? I would like to draw the attention of those interested to the fact that the Masonic ritual was made public by several newspapers around the time of Deist Benjamin Franklin. Mr. Franklin was a Master Mason, a member of the Lodge of the Nine Muses whilst in Paris (Voltaire and Mozart were also among these learned Brethren), and later Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Of course, one cannot confirm the degree to which references available conform to the actual text and practice, then or now, but one may perhaps glean some insight into the core ideals by browsing the available texts to find some morsels of munificence, brilliance, and wisdom. Much of the content and language of the Masonic Ritual was most probably composed and compiled by some of the most brilliant men of the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, and The Age of Reason, perhaps with deliberate ancient reference, wed with the languages of reason and goodwill, and some considerable embrace of the sciences and mathematics (G = Geometry, the root of the mathematics = God). Among those who have experienced this, and taken the solemn oath, and who often dedicated their lives to the service of the Deity, and in embrace of the stated core principles, were George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson (suspected) Samuel Gompers, George Pullman, Jean Henri Dunont, General Omar Bradley, General James Doolittle, Henry Ford, W.E.B. Dubois, Drs. William and Charles Mayo, Oscar Wilde, Fiorella LaGuardia, Adlai Stevenson, James Madison, James Monroe, Sam Houston, Barry Goldwater, Wolgang von Goethe, King William I of Prussia, Alexander Pope, Alexander Pushkin, Friedrich Schiller, William Shakespeare, Giuseppe Garibaldi, John Paul Jones, General John Pershing, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Colt, Dr. Albert Michelson, Booker T. Washington, Jessie Jackson, Michael Jordan, Cecil B. DeMille, Louis Mayer, Sir John MacDonald, King Leopold I, King Gustavus VI, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Johann Sebastian Bach, Irving Berlin, Sir Richard Burton, John Hancock, Paul Revere, David Crockett, Ernest Shackleton, Robert Peary, Andre Citroen, Simon Bolivar, Arnold Palmer, Frederic Bartholdi, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Gordon Cooper, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, John Jay, Hugo Black, Norman Vincent Peale, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Jacob Astor, Andrew Carnegie, Elias Ashmole, Lord Cornwalis, Ethan Allan, Napolean Bonaparte, Vannevar Bush, Antonio Meucci, Dr. Edward Jenner, Dr. Alexander Flemming, The Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Winston Churchill, Rudyard Kipling, Frederick the Great, Edmund Burke, King Edward VIII, King George the VI, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Peter Sellers, Ernest Borgnine, Samuel Colt, and Samuel Clemens, to name but a few. Abraham Lincoln announced that he would pursue it when his duties as President were faithfully discharged. What is it then that attracted and influenced so many good, interesting, and even great men (and alas, perhaps a few bad apples)? A free man or woman must of course judge for themselves the quality of the ideals. youtube/watch?v=MuAGGZNfUkU
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 06:16:41 +0000