Morals and Dogma is a philosophical
work, created by an individual who was an extraordinarily prolific writer even
for an age when prolific writing was the norm. It was also fashioned in the
style of Pike's time when public speaking was a high art form and Pike was
known far and wide for his skills in this area. Morals and Dogma is
not a manifesto (i.e. public declaration of principles, policies, or
intentions) for Masonry or even for the Scottish Rite's Southern Jurisdiction.
It is, rather, an attempt by Pike to provide a framework for understanding
religions and philosophies of the past.[1]
Morals and Dogma[2]
is the work of Albert Pike with his take on principles of Freemasonry,
especially those of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. The lessons of the Scottish Rite are
presented in plays and lectures, which are explained at some length in the
book. This is one of my favorite
lectures on Tolerance.
This
Degree is chiefly devoted to TOLERATION; and it inculcates in the strongest
manner that great leading idea of the Ancient Art. that a belief in the one
True God. and a moral and virtuous life, constitute the only religious
requisites needed to enable a man to be a Mason.
Masonry
has ever the most vivid remembrance of the terrible and artificial torments
that were used to put down new forms of religion or extinguish the old. …
Man
never had the right to usurp the unexercised prerogative of God, and condemn
and punish another for his belief. Born in a Protestant land, we are of that
faith. If we had opened our eyes to the light under the shadows of St. Peter's
at Rome, we should have been devout Catholics; born in the Jewish quarter of
Aleppo, we should have contemned Christ as an imposter; in Constantinople, we
should have cried "Allah il Allah, God is great and Mahomet is his
prophet!" Birth, place, and education give us our faith. Few believe in
any religion because they have examined the evidences of its authenticity, and
made up a formal judgment, upon weighing the testimony. Not one man in ten
thousand knows anything about the proofs of his faith. We believe what we are
taught; and those are most fanatical who know least of the evidences
on which their creed is based. Facts and testimony are not, except in very rare
instances, the ground-work of faith. It is an imperative law of God's Economy,
unyielding and inflexible as Himself, that man shall accept without question
the belief of those among whom he is born and reared; the faith so made a part
of his nature resists all evidence to the contrary; and he will disbelieve even
the evidence of his own senses, rather than yield up the religious belief which
has grown up in him, flesh of his flesh and bone
of his bone.
What
is truth to me is not truth to another. The same arguments and evidences that
convince one mind make no impression on another. This difference is in men at
their birth. No man is entitled positively to assert that he is right, where
other men, equally intelligent and equally well-informed, hold directly the opposite
opinion. Each thinks it impossible for the other to be sincere, and each, as to
that, is equally in error. "What is truth?" was a profound question,
the most suggestive one ever put to man.
Many
beliefs of former and present times seem incomprehensible. They startle us with
a new glimpse into the human soul, that mysterious thing, more mysterious the
more we note its workings. Here is a man superior to myself in intellect and
learning; and yet he sincerely believes what seems to me too absurd to merit
confutation; and I cannot conceive, and sincere!}' do not believe, that he is
both sane and honest. And yet he is both. His reason is as perfect as mine, and
he is as honest as I.
[2] A
complete online text of Morals and Dogma can be found at https://archive.org/stream/moralsdogmaofanc00pikeiala/moralsdogmaofanc00pikeiala_djvu.txt
. This excerpt comes from pages 164-166.
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