We hear so many stories about Templars still existing… about Masons being a worldwide association and things like the “Skulls”.
In a large scale … are their secret socieites that actively push for a secret agenda of sorts ? In a global/regional scale… not only within a country. Especially when its not only about ritual or helping out “brothers” but to establish or strengthen a agenda.
Al Qaeda isnt valid since its “open”. Masons are more “social” than truly a “secret” society.
Masons: Not a secret society. They are known to exist and make no effort to hide such existence. Their meeting halls are clearly labeled and they do not recruit in secret (actually they don’t recruit but accept those who self-recruit into the society). Have many members in quite a few countries. Do not have a world-wide agenda. Those who believe the “masons are taking over the world” are, well, not much smarter than the pebble outside my door.
Templars: Modern day Templars are a Masonic organization.
Well, vanilla, I think you’ve heard that stuff from some very vocal anti-Masonic outfits. At any rate, they do have secrets; they’re just not a secret society. Although I’m not a Mason myself (I’m a DeMolay), I think I am on quite solid ground in saying the “upper level secrets” are not “Satanic World Domination 101.” Essentially, they’re just little skits to liven up the promotion.
There is a fundamental problem with this question. If there are secret societies, then we wouldn’t know about them. If people know about them, then they aren’t all that secret are they?
The Masons used to be quasi secret, but more recently they decided that this was damaging their ability to continue the society, so they made an effort to increase their visibility.
Of course, you could always read up on Jack Chick’s take on the Masons: it’s certainly much more interesting than the Masons themselves are.
Dan Brown also claims that the Illuminati have “incredibly complex” word-puzzle brands and that they left a secret trail all over Rome. I’m hoping he thinks of himself as writing fiction (bad fiction, at that).
Isn’t a secret society just a group that restricts knowledge of some of its societies to its members? I thought that was the standard definition, and the Masons would be a secret society under that definition, wouldn’t they?
No, not automatically, but definately it is so. Some sort of insane fear of the Masons brings out some of the craziest accusations and quasi-logic Chick has ever come up with. His mason tracts are definately some oft he most entertaining he’s done, and the things he accuses them of doing are far more outrageous than anything they really do.
