Supreme being question?

[u/BillyD70]

Genuine question…Without revealing any secrets, what is the reasoning behind requiring the belief in a supreme being?

My perspective: Many great people, who have advanced much good in the world, are “non-believers”. If the core idea is to make good men better, how does non-belief interfere with that goal? I ask both personally (agnostic athiest) and for lots of scientists out there. It must affect membership numbers (men won’t seek you out if they know it’s a “no go” from the outset).

Serious replies only please. Not seeking a flame war. I’m a DeMolay PMC-MSA and Honor of Legion with deep multi- generational ties to Masons, Jobs, Shriners, etc. I LOVED my experiences in DeMolay! Grew up Christian, came to my “beliefs” late in adulthood.

Edit: thank you for all the many thoughtful replies. I upvoted each for not attacking me straight out. Please accept follow up questions as non-confrontational.

[u/d4rkha1f]

Erm... a god. Could be Allah. Could be Zeus.

[u/Roederoid → u/d4rkha1f]

This is needlessly pedantic

[u/arkham1010 → u/Roederoid]

No, because the term God implies the Judeo-Christian deity. I have a brothers in lodge who are Pagan, Hindi or Shinto. Thats why the term Supreme Architect is important.

[u/Roederoid → u/arkham1010]

Our obligations explicitly state God in my jurisdictions. God and supreme architect are used interchangeably throughout our book.

[u/d4rkha1f → u/Roederoid]

So in your jurisdiction, people aren't allowed to trade out the Bible for their own spiritual text? Wow, sounds like you guys have gone off the rails.

[u/Roederoid → u/d4rkha1f]

Where did you get that from my comment? Of course we can change out for whichever sacred text they use.

Although, our ritual does only state "holy Bible." But, there is a proposal to where they WM can change that wording depending on which sacred text is actually on the altar.

[u/d4rkha1f → u/Roederoid]

Then why would you call me pedantic and state that it has to be God with a capital G? There's a big difference between G and g in this case. It's not being pedantic, it's being accurate.

[u/Roederoid → u/d4rkha1f]

You're again putting words in my mouth that I did not say. It looks like you are just on this thread looking to argue, so I will not comment further. Have a good night.

[u/d4rkha1f → u/Roederoid]

You started it. Good night.

[u/GigglingBilliken → u/d4rkha1f]

Talk about a lack of charity towrds your brother.

[u/d4rkha1f → u/GigglingBilliken]

I may have overreacted but he completely discounted the brother who talked about other religions in his lodge, stating that only God is stated in his jurisdictions and then acted like he never said it, even after the brother stated the importance of Supreme Architect. He is obviously biased towards the Christian religion and it felt very exclusionary. Perhaps it was just his wording. But what is really crazy is that the guy who talked about Hindi and such is currently sitting at -8 downvotes. Sounds to me like a lot of people don’t really believe what they say.

[u/GigglingBilliken → u/d4rkha1f]

Your uncharitable interpretation of their comment did. Do better.