Global Freemasonry

Materialism in Masonic Sources

I. BELIEF IN ABSOLUTE MATTER

Today's Masons, as did the pharaohs, priests and other classes of Ancient Egypt, believe in the eternity and uncreatedness of matter, and that out of this lifeless matter living things came to be by chance. In Masonic writings we can read detailed accounts of these basic elements of materialist philosophy.

In his book, Masonluktan Esinlenmeler (Inspirations from Freemasonry), Master Mason Selami Isindag writes about Masonry's pure materialist philosophy: All space, the atmosphere, the stars, nature, all animate and inanimate things are composed of atoms. Human beings are nothing more than a spontaneously occurring collection of atoms. A balance in the flow of electricity among atoms assures the survival of living things.

When this balance is destroyed (not the electricity in the atoms), we die, return to the earth and are dispersed into atoms. That is, we have come from matter and energy and we will return to matter and energy. Plants make use of our atoms, and all living things including us make use of plants.

Everything is made of the same substance. But because our brains are most highly evolved of all animals, consciousness appeared. If we look at the results of experimental psychology, we see that our three-fold psychic experience of emotion-mind-will is the result of the balanced functioning of the cells in the brain's cortex and hormones… Positivist science accepts that nothing came into existence from nothing, and nothing will be destroyed.

As a result, it can be concluded that human beings feel grateful and obliged to no power. The universe is a totality of energy with no beginning or end. Everything is born from this totality of energy, evolving and dying, but never totally disappearing. Things change and are transformed. There is really no such thing as death or loss;

there is continuous change, transformation and formation. But it is not possible to explain this great question and universal secret by means of scientific laws. But extra-scientific explanations are imaginary descriptions, dogma and vain belief. According to positivist science and reason, there is no spirit apart from the body.81

You will find views identical to those above in the books of materialist thinkers such as K. Marx, F. Engels, V .I. Lenin, G. Politzer, C. Sagan, and J. Monod. They all accept the basic materialist myth that the universe has existed for ever, matter is the one absolute existent entity, human beings are composed of matter and are without spirit, matter evolved in and out of itself, and life appeared as a result of chance. It is right to use the term myth because,

contrary to Isindag's claim that "these processes are the result of positivist science and reason," all these views have been invalidated by scientific discoveries in the second half of the twentieth century. For example, the Big Bang theory, accepted in scientific circles as proven, shows scientifically that the universe was created from nothing millions of years ago. The Laws of Thermodynamics show that matter does not have the ability to organize itself and that the balance and order in the universe is the result therefore of a conscious creation.

By demonstrating the extraordinary structure of living things, biology proves the existence of a Creator that made them all. (For detailed information, see Harun Yahya's The Creation of the Universe, Darwinism Refuted, The Evolution Deceit)

In his article, Isindag continues to explain that Masons are, in fact, materialists and, therefore, atheists, and that they use the concept of the "Great Architect of the Universe" in reference to a material evolution:

I want very briefly to touch on some principles, thoughts adopted by Masons: According to Masonry, life begins from a single cell, changes, is transformed and evolves into a human being. The nature, cause or purpose or conditions of this beginning cannot be known. Life comes from a combination of matter and energy and returns to it. If we accept the Great Architect of the Universe as a sublime principle, an endless horizon of goodness and beauty, the apex of the evolution, its highest stage and the ideal towards which human beings strive, and if we do not personalize it, we may be rescued from dogmatism.82

As we see, one of the most basic principles of Masonic philosophy is that things come from matter and go back to matter. An interesting aspect of this view is that Masons do not regard this philosophy as particular to just themselves; they want to disseminate these ideas to the whole of society. Isindag continues:

A mason trained with these principles and doctrines accepts the duty to educate people... and to edify them by teaching them the principles of reason and positivist science. In this way, Masonry is addressed to people. It works on behalf of people despite the people.83 These words show two aspects of Masonry's perceived role in society;

1. Under the guise of positivist science and reason, Masonry attempts to impose on the rest of society the materialist philosophy it believes in (that is, Ancient Egyptian myth).

2. They intend to do this despite the people. That is, even if a society believes in God and has no desire to accept a materialist philosophy, Masonry will be dogged in their attempt to change people's world view without their consent.

There is an important matter that we must take notice of here: the terminology that Masons use is deceptive. In their writings, especially those directed at the rest of society, they employ language designed to show their philosophy as harmless, intelligent and tolerant. An example of this can be seen in the quotation above, in the notion of "edifying people by teaching them the principles of reason and positivist science." Indeed, Masonic philosophy has nothing to do with "science and reason"; it has to do with an outmoded myth that flies in the face of science. It is not Masonry's goal to edify people; their deliberate intention is to impose their philosophy on people. When they maintain that they are determined to do this despite the people, we see that they are not tolerant, but in possession of a totalitarian world-view.

II. DENIAL OF THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRIT AND OF THE HEREAFTER

As a part of their materialist beliefs, Masons do not accept the existence of the human spirit and completely reject the idea of the hereafter. In spite of this, Masonic writings sometimes say of the dead that they "passed over into eternity" or other such spiritual expressions. This may appear contradictory, but it is not, actually, because all of Masonry's references to the immortality of the spirit are symbolic. Mimar Sinan deals with this topic in an article entitled, "After Death in Freemasonry":

In the myth of Master Hiram, Masons accept resurrection after death in a symbolic manner. This resurrection shows that truth always prevails over death and darkness. Masonry does not give any importance to the existence of a spirit apart from the body. In Masonry, resurrection after death is to leave some spiritual or material work as a legacy to human beings.

These make a human being immortal. Those who have been able to have their names immortalized in this deceptively short human life are those who have become successful. We regard those who have had their names immortalized as persons who have spent all their efforts, either for their contemporaries or for those generations that follow them, to make people happy and to ensure for them a more humane world.

Their aim is to exalt the humane impulses that influence the lives of living people… Human beings who have sought immortality throughout the centuries can achieve it through the work they do, the services they perform and the ideas they produce, and this will give their lives meaning. As Tolstoy explained, "Paradise will then have been established here on earth and people will attain the highest possible good."84

On the same topic, Master Mason Isindag writes:

**The Substance Of Everything **

Masonry understands this as energy and matter. They say that everything changes stage by stage and will return again to matter. Scientifically, this is defined as death. Mysticism on this matter, that is, the belief that, of the two forces of which a person is composed-spirit and body-the body will die and the spirit will not; that spirits pass away to the world of spirits, continue their existence there and come back into another body when God commands, does not fit in with the change-transformation ideas accepted by Masonry. The ideas of Masonry on this matter can be expressed in this way:

"After your death, the only things that will be left of you, and not die, are the memories of your maturity and what you have accomplished." This idea is a kind of philosophical way of thinking based on the principles of positivist science and reason. The religious belief in the immortality of the spirit and resurrection after death does not agree with positivist principles. Masonry has taken its principles of thought from positivist and rationalist philosophical systems. So, in this philosophical question, it is connected to a different way of thinking and explanation than that of religion.85

To reject resurrection after death and to search for immortality in worldly legacy... Even if Masons present this idea as being in conformity with modern science, it is, in fact, a myth that has been believed by godless people since the early ages of history. The Qur'an says that godless people "constructed fine buildings hoping to live forever." Hud (peace be upon him), one of the past prophets, warned the people of 'Ad against this mode of ignorance, as stated below:

When their brother Hud said to them, "Will you not do your duty?

I am a faithful Messenger to you, so heed God and obey me. I do not ask you for any wage for it. My wage is the responsibility of no one but the Lord of all the worlds. Do you build a tower on every hilltop, just to amuse yourselves, and construct fine buildings, hoping to live for ever, and when you attack, attack as tyrants do? So heed God and obey me." (Qur'an, 26: 124-131)

The mistake these godless people committed was not the construction of fine buildings. Muslims also give importance to art; by producing it, they try to beautify the world. The difference lies in intention. A Muslim is interested in art to the extent that it expresses the beauty and esthetic notions that God has given to human beings. Godless people are mistaken in regarding art as a way to immortality.

THE SCIENTIFIC INCONGRUITY OF DENYING THE SOUL

The Masons' denial of the existence of spirit, and their claim that human consciousness is composed of matter, are not in accord with science. On the contrary, modern scientific discoveries demonstrate that human consciousness cannot be reduced to matter, and that consciousness cannot be explained in terms of the functions of the brain.

A look at the relevant literature shows that scientists have reached no conclusion as a result of their efforts, spurred on by materialist belief, to reduce consciousness to the brain, and many have ultimately given up. Today, many researchers are of the opinion that human consciousness comes from an unknown source beyond the neurons in the brain and the molecules and atoms that form them.

After years of study, one of these researchers, Wilder Penfield, reached the conclusion that the existence of spirit is an undeniable fact: After years of striving to explain the mind on the basis of brain-action alone, I have come to the conclusion that it is simpler (and far easier to be logical) if one adopts the hypothesis that our being does consist of two fundamental elements [brain and mind (or soul)]. …Because it seems to be certain that it will always be quite impossible to explain the mind on the basis of neuronal action within the brain… I am forced to choose the proposition that our being is to be explained on the basis of two fundamental elements." [brain and mind, or body and soul] 86

What leads scientists to this conclusion is the fact that consciousness can never be described in terms of material factors alone. The human brain is like a marvelous computer, in which information from our five senses are collected and processed. But, this computer does not have a sense of "self"; it cannot conceive, feel or think about the sensations that it receives. The prominent English physicist, Roger Penrose, in his book The Emperor's New Mind, writes:

What is it that gives a particular person his individual identity? Is it, to some extent, the very atoms that compose his body? Is his identity dependent upon the particular choice of electrons, protons, and other particles that compose those atoms? There are at least two reasons why this cannot be so. In the first place, there is a continual turnover in the material of any living person's body.

This applies in particular to the cells in a person's brain, despite the fact that no new actual brain cells are produced after birth. The vast majority of atoms in each living cell (including each brain cell)-and, indeed, virtually the entire material of our bodies-has been replaced many times since birth.

The second reason comes from quantum physics…If an electron in a person's brain were to be exchanged with an electron in a brick, then the state of the system would be exactly the same state as it was before, not merely indistinguishable from it! The same holds for protons and for any other kind of particle, and for whole atoms, molecules, etc. If the entire material content of a person were to be exchanged with corresponding particles in the bricks of his house then, in a strong sense, nothing would have happened whatsoever.87

Penrose clearly says that, even if all human atoms were exchanged with brick atoms, the qualities that make a human being conscious would remain completely the same. Or we could think of it conversely. If we exchanged the particles of the atoms in the brain with the atoms in bricks, the bricks would not become conscious.

In short, what makes human beings human is not a material quality; it is a spiritual one, and it is clear that its source is an entity apart from matter. In the conclusion of his book, Penrose comments:

Consciousness seems to me to be such an important phenomenon that I simply cannot believe that it is something just "accidentally" conjured up by a complicated computation. It is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known.88

What is materialism's standpoint, then, in light of these findings? How can materialists claim that human beings are composed only of matter, and that a human being with intelligence, feelings, thoughts, memory and senses, could come to be by the chance composition of lifeless, unconscious atoms? How can they possibly think that such a process is possible?

These questions concern all materialists. But, on these topics, Masonic writings contain ideas still more curious than anything found among the writings of materialists. When we look at these writings, we see clearly that behind the materialist philosophy lies the "worship of matter."

MASONIC MATERIALISM: THE DIVINIZATION OF MATTER

It is necessary to understand clearly what the materialist philosophy is: Those who espouse this philosophy believe that the great order and balance of the universe, and the millions of species of living things in the world, including human beings, came about only by the activity of the atoms that comprise matter. In other words, they believe that lifeless and unconscious atoms are creators.

No matter how modern this idea may seem, it is, in fact, a reemergence of a belief that has existed since the earliest ages of history: Idolatry. Those who worshipped idols believed that the statues and totems they worshipped had spirit and power. In other words, they attributed consciousness and great power to lifeless, unconscious matter. Surely, this is obviously nonsensical. In the Qur'an, God refers to the irrationality of paganism. In the stories of the Prophets, the spuriousness of pagan beliefs is especially emphasized. For example, Abraham asked his father, "Father, why do you worship what can neither hear nor see and is not of any use to you at all?" (Qur'an, 19: 42) It is clear that, to attribute divinity to lifeless matter, that cannot hear or see, "is not of any use to one at all," and has no power, is evidently very foolish.

Materialists are modern examples of idolaters. They do not worship statues and totems made of wood and stone, but believe in the idea that matter constitutes, not only these, but all bodies, and think that this matter has limitless power, intelligence and knowledge. Masonic writings have some interesting things to say about this, because Masons openly confess this pagan belief, which is the essence of materialism. An article in Mimar Sinan magazine declares:

In order for a material object to come to be, atoms come together in a certain order. The force that causes this organization is the spirit possessed by each atom. Because every spirit is a consciousness, every created thing is an intelligent consciousness. And every created thing is intelligent to the same degree. A human being, an animal, a bacterium and a molecule are all intelligent to the same degree.89

We notice that it is claimed here that every atom has intelligence and consciousness. The Masonic writer making this claim proposes that every thing has consciousness because of the atoms it possesses and, because he rejects the existence of the human spirit, he regards a human being as a mass of atoms, just like an animal or lifeless molecules.

However, the fact is this: lifeless matter (atoms) has no spirit, consciousness or intelligence. This is a fact proved to us by both observation and experiment. Only living things have consciousness, which is the result of the "soul" that God has given to them. Of all living things, human beings are benefited with the highest degree of consciousness because they possess a unique spirit that God has given to them.

In other words, consciousness is not found in lifeless matter, as the Masons believe, but in beings that have spirit. But, in order not to accept the existence of God, Masons resort to the foolish belief that attributes "spirit" to atoms.

This materialist belief espoused by Masons is a new expression of a pagan belief called "animism," which supposes that every material thing in nature (rocks, mountains, winds, water, etc.) has its own spirit and consciousness. The Greek philosopher Aristotle combined this belief with materialism (the belief that matter is uncreated and is the only absolute) and even today, the attribution of consciousness to lifeless things-being the essence of materialism-has become a kind of contemporary paganism.

Masonic writings are full of interesting accounts of this belief. An article in Mimar Sinan entitled "The Way of Truth" maintains: If we accept the animist hierarchy that spirit exists in an atom, that a molecule directs the spirit in an atom, that a cell directs the spirit in a molecule, that an organ directs the spirit in a cell, is not the main spirit that directs the whole body the god of these lesser spirits?90 This false and primitive doctrine leads Masons to believe that the balance and order in the universe is effected by lifeless matter. Again, in Mimar Sinan, an article has appeared about the world's geological development. It states:

This surface deterioration occurs so subtly that we can say that the present state of life has been attained as a result of this hidden intelligence in magma. If this were not so, water would not collect in hollows and the earth would be completely covered by water.91

Another article in the magazine Mimar Sinan claims that the first living cells, and those that multiplied from them, were conscious, formed a plan and implemented it: The beginning of life on earth happened when a single cell came to be. This single cell immediately began to move and, under a vital and truly rebellious impulse, divided in two and continued along this path of infinite division.

But these separated cells perceive no purpose to their wandering and, as if fearing this wandering and under a powerful instinctive drive of self-preservation, these separated cells co-operate among themselves, come together and work in a total democratic harmony and self-sacrifice in the creation of those organs critical for life.92 But, contrary to what is asserted in this quotation, there is no consciousness in a living cell.

To believe this is nothing but superstition. Again, as we see in the above quotation, in order to deny the existence and creative activity of God, they attribute farcical attributes to atoms, molecules and cells, such as intelligence, the ability to plan, self-sacrifice and even "democratic harmony." Just as it is nonsense to say of the creation of an oil painting that "the paints ordered themselves together according to a plan, and proceeded democratically and in harmony," so the Masons' claim about the origin of life is nonsense.

Another common expression of the superstitious tenets of Masonry and its materialism is the notion of "Mother Nature." We encounter this expression in documentary films, books, magazines and even commercials; it is used to express the belief that the lifeless matter that composes nature (nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, etc.) has a conscious power, and that it has by itself created human beings and all living things. This myth is not based on observation or logical reasoning, but is intended to win people over by means of mass indoctrination. The purpose is for people to forget God, the real Creator, turning instead to paganism, in which "nature" is regarded as the creator.

Masonry strives to give shape to this creed, strengthen and disseminate it, and supports all social forces that it regards as being its allies. An article in Mimar Sinan, entitled "Thoughts About The Concept and the Evolution of Solidarity from the Scientific Point of View," speaks of the "mysterious harmony that mother nature has ordered" and states that this is the basis of Masonry's humanist philosophy. It further states that Masonry will support those movements that espouse this philosophy:

When it considers from the point of view of the material give and take in the world of living things, that beneficial microbes which live on the earth and within us, all plants, animals and human beings exist in a mysterious harmony ordered by mother nature, and that they are continually engaged in an organic solidarity, I want to affirm once again that Masonry will regard every kind of psycho-social movement dedicated to well-being, peace, security and happiness, in short, every movement that is on the road to humanism and the universal unity of humanity, as means and actions that advance its own ideals.93

The most important of those "means and actions" which "advance the ideals of Masonry" is the purportedly scientifically based theory of evolution, the modern support for materialism and humanism.

In the next chapter we will take a closer look to the theory of evolution from Darwin's time to modern evolutionist propaganda, and we will discover the secret relationship of Masonry to this greatest scientific error of all time.