God

Freemasonry requires a candidate to believe in a Supreme Being, but the Fraternity itself has no theology, espouses no specific religious doctrines, and functions as neither a church nor a handmaid to one 3. Avowed atheists cannot be admitted to the Order 3. Rather than imposing a dogma, the Craft permits each member to view Deity according to his own faith, addressing God under non-sectarian titles such as the Great Architect of the Universe, Grand Artificer, Great Geometer, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva 23.

In the Craft, this belief is expressed through foundational Landmarks, including the presence of an open Volume of the Sacred Law on the altar—whether the Christian Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures, the Quran, or another code suited to the members' faiths—to serve as a spiritual Trestle-Board 3. Masons view God as a supreme creator and worker, a perspective originating in part from a rejection of the medieval dogma that labor was a curse, establishing instead that work is honorable and divine, and that all Masons meet on the level as children of one heavenly Father 3. The letter "G" or other symbols of Deity placed in the lodge connect God to geometry, symbolizing divine order throughout the universe 2.

In the Scottish Rite, Albert Pike presents God as a Father who governs the world through steady, inexorable natural laws, in which human suffering serves to chasten, strengthen, and purify the soul for grand eternal designs 1. Pike also examines ancient philosophical traditions that view God as the Universal Soul and animating principle resident throughout nature 1.