Almost every day, I seem to read an article or watch a news cast which discusses the controversy surrounding some religious principle. These stories fascinate me because of the variety of religious views that people hold. It seems hard to believe that humans could all descend from one common ancestor and yet have so many different religions. It’s even harder to believe that two people who belong to the same religion can have nearly opposite spiritual beliefs.
Of course, when you consider the course of history the plethora of religious disagreements isn’t so surprising. Throughout the centuries there have been countless prophets, texts, and religious leaders preaching different ideals. If you examine any major religion, there seems to be very little unity among its followers. Every religion has numerous sects and denominations and each one of those divisions has several leaders which teach their own particular view of their faith.
With all of these differing opinions, it is hard to distinguish what the Almighty would really want for his creation. Unfortunately, God doesn’t have his own radio or television station.
Or does he?
The proliferation of different religious ideologies through rhetoric can cause harmful interference to communication between man and God.
The Federal Communications Commission defines harmful interference as
“any emission, radiation or induction that endangers the functioning of a radio navigation service or of other safety services or seriously degrades, obstructs or repeatedly interrupts a radio communications service…”
The radio communication I refer to is the beautiful language of symbolism. The earliest men used symbolism to explain abstract spiritual principles. Symbolism is pure in its form and is more appropriate for describing the complexities of the Deity. They can only become controversial when man uses rhetoric to ascribe absolute explanations to them.
As many have properly noted, symbolism is the language of God.
Luckily for Freemasons, we belong to an organization that relies on symbolism to teach moral precepts. It allows us to be free from spiritual dissent by allowing its concepts to be illustrated rather than explained through language. It is a beautiful way to reduce the harmful interference that is continuously found outside of the lodge.
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Very insightful and directly to the point! Well put brother! I imagine this is why we find that symbolism is so universal, while the dogmas of different people vary widely. I am reminded of Plato’s Archetypal world of forms in which what manifests here on earth is an imperfect representation. Perhaps the symbols are the closest we can get to these forms emanating from the Mind of God… One of Freemasonry’s greatest assets is it’s ability to present initiates with symbols- however we should always work to be better at understanding symbolism.
Thank for this brother! I saw a comedian recently who said it best… “I don’t care who the messenger is, Did you get the message!” If more people would look inside thmeselves and get past the surface defferences, they would see that all these school of thought have similar messages at their core. It is only when some Pre-late steps in to “interpret” for them, that the message gets twisted to cause pain or disharmony!