I have a freemason lodge right across the street from me. They are Christians who invite all faiths to worship God with them, and do community service work. There is nothing nefarious about it.
The Freemasons are a long standing organization which our founding fathers were a part of. Why should I believe that Christians like George Washington and others were part of an evil organization when I can just believe that anti-Christian groups are trying to demonize Christians?
If some reddit neckbeard is telling me that a Christian group is evil and bad, I am far more likely to think that the reddit neckbeard is a far left Christian-hating liberal. Who are these people making these claims against the Freemasons, exactly?
The same demonizing is made about the Knights of Templar, which were Catholic-Christians who opposed mass immigration and organized to protect their homeland.
Goog ai says:
In his writings, such as Morals and Dogma, Pike used "Lucifer" in its original Latin sense—the "light-bearer" or "Morning Star"—referring to the search for knowledge rather than a satanic entity.
I always found it strange that knowledge symbolized by light is literally demonized by religion.
Yeah that is odd…