What's the point of contemporary Freemasonry? They are not in any way similar nor have retained anything of the true and ancient Freemasonry?

Contemporary Freemasonry seeks to make good men better by fostering moral rectitude, charity, community service, and friendship built upon integrity, respect, and service, as the Regional Grand Lodge of Southern India and the United Grand Lodge of England state. Rather than engaging in physical building, present-day lodges use medieval stonemasons' working tools, allegorical guides, and ancient customs as symbolic models to teach moral principles and intellectual faculties, while strictly prohibiting political or theological debate within the lodge under its Antient Charges to maintain harmony.

Historically, the institution traces its operative origins to medieval stonemasons who used secret signs and tokens to demonstrate their trade qualifications when traveling for work, whereas modern speculative Freemasonry operates symbolically for moral and social improvement, as the United Grand Lodge of England records. In Craft Masonry, Wilmshurst emphasizes that while there is no direct historical continuity linking modern lodges to ancient Egypt or Solomon's Temple 1, the spiritual doctrine concealed within architectural language is extremely ancient 1. He holds that the Craft offers a dramatic ceremonial diagram of human regeneration and a philosophy of the spiritual life, serving as an inclusive synthesis for men of all religious creeds 1.

Early Masonic writers debated whether the Craft was a direct continuation of the Ancient Mysteries or their original prototype, with commentators such as Faber viewing those ancient rites as allegories for the soul's recovery from darkness to illumination 4. Newton notes that modern historical scholarship replaces earlier extravagant claims of physical antiquity with a scientific study of the Order's origin, philosophy, and moral mission 2. The early Grand Lodge charges compiled by Anderson similarly established an inclusive framework designed to unite men under a universal moral law rather than rigid sectarian dogmas 3.