Freemasons, they're everywhere, more so in the west than the east (for this is the final stage of the western empire, tyranny, then after that civilisation will fall this side of the globe). They go way back, they've been around for a very long time. It's original purpose was to revitalise older religions (old world order) and actually do some good with the world by creating a new world order, but as everything.. it became corrupt, a few half-witted intellectuals reached the top of the social pyramid and threw away the ladder, up there unable to face the base of the pyramid.. they float high above reality, like many theists. They say they're against christianity (i.e they think they are satanists) but to be honest they are just as bad as theists. The symbols for these come from all the civilisations of the past and form one big collective of symbollic history. Satanism is merely the polar opposite of Christianity, Christianity threw that lot in the dark and Satanism threw this lot in the dark. Truth is they should just get over themselves and stop being immature deities and work things out like the yin-yang.

I know a freemason very well- he's just your average *Christian* professional guy. I have met his friends. They are just like any man you may meet at work, the pub or on the bus. People do not understand freemasons at all - it isn't the same organisation it was in some circles before. Discussing/debating/preaching your own religion is not allowed (you just need to have a belief in a greater being whatever it is before you can join) and they do a lot of charity work. It is just a gentlemen's club made up of men from all walks of life and all religions. Antimodern said that they said they are against christianity. That is wrong - Check out a freemasons website. With that said, it does no harm. Freemasonry actually does have a place in our society by providing a forum for like-minded people and a base for charity work.

Freemasonry, in short, is a brotherhood which teaches moral lessons in much the same way many religions, such as Christianity do - through parable and such. The requirements for entrance are few, but one of them is a belief in God; although they do use many symbols which could be considered either gnostic or pagan. The details as to why they use that symbolism is too in depth to get into here, suffice to say that they only require a belief in a higher power, not necessarily any particular god (Allah, Yahweh, Vishnu, etc). While many people in high social standing have been involved in Masonry (Politicians, authors, actors, etc.), I find it far more likely that those people were likely involved in Masons for the same reasons they gravitated towards their professions, than they they somehow used their position in Masonry to influence their success or what have you. They're basically a more serious, more spiritual, more mysterious, older Boy Scoutish like bunch. And are mostly older gentlemen due to declining interest for a while, after a large boom (I believe in the 70's). Many of the negative stereotypes (I would say all, but I'm not sure what some people could come up with...) associated with Masons are absolutely ridiculous. For some strange reason, maybe it's paranoia, some people seem to think that Masons are the real world equivalent of villians from Austin Powers movies. And yes, I am a Mason.