Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

" In all this progressive mummery we see the hand of the Jesuits, and it would seem that it was encouraged by the church." Robison begins our section this week continuing his neophobia over the turn the Masonic lodges have taken in recent times. By "progressive" he probably means that it's been getting more and more elaborate, but I also choose to read that in the modern definition as well. Robison really seems to dislike the change from the "old boys" club that Masonry used to be...at least as far as he thinks it was. Remember, he was never really into it, and one of the reasons for that was he thought the rituals were a waste of time. It's very odd that he would base his new dislike of modern Masonry on something he never cared about before.  Placing the blame on the Jesuits is made without any kind of foundation, but this is where we are going to start the proper conspiracy. I've mentioned the Jesuits before, but to recap: they are one of th...

At a certain point, a person no longer had to be a mason to be a Mason. The origin of Freemasonry is a difficult one to discover, only because all of the conspiracy theories have muddied up the search results. What I know, for sure, is that Freemasonry used to be something like a guild, and then at a certain point in the 17th century this was no longer a requirement. From then on, it was just a secret society of people--men, in Europe. The term "secret society" gets an unfair pejorative but the actual meaning is that they don't make public their enrollment. The wealthy club that I used to park cars for, was a secret society for this reason.  I bring it up, because Robison does as well, only he takes much longer to say it. Robison talks a great deal concerning the generation of architecture and the role of the architect in societies from the Dionysiacs of Asia Minor (Eastern Turkey, including the kingdom of the famous Croesus) to Christian Europe and the British Isles. Rob...

I suppose I'm a writer. I write this, obviously, but I also have a bunch of other projects that I've written as well...for the outside world. I've been published in books, other websites, and a magazine; so I get the temptation for literary indulgence when trying to communicate an idea. The temptation, in non-fiction, is to put something that is obviously the author into the writing. It's egotistical, sure, but it's there. I like to confine it to a paragraph. Such as this one, Robison likes 9 pages before introducing the topic.  An introduction is supposed to do a thing. Usually, it's a short sales pitch on why the person would want to read the book in the first place. My dissertation had an introduction on why conspiracy theories were worthy of academic discussion--a hurdle made much easier by the existence of Covid. Robison has opted for telling his life's story concerning Freemasonry. I have to be fair though, at this point in his life, he's already g...

I'm pretty sure I've used that title in the previous book discussing Allen's postulations concerning the Illuminati and we will talk about the "who" in a bit. When we last left off, someone had stolen money from Tsarina Caterina the Great, and left Robison a box. Now we find out what was in the box.  Inside the box were the secrets of French masonry along with four extra degrees (ranks). Ok...cool, but what of it? Even Robison is disinterested in the contents having abandoned the order. While this seems like a real find for someone in the conspiracist set, it amounts to the rules of Masonry in Paris. He claims that he would make them available to anyone who asked, provided that no one could use this information to enter a lodge that was not already a member. This isn't a story that is going anywhere.  I think even Robison is aware of the non-sequitor so he returns to the book that spurned this entire writing in the first place. Remember from last post, the imp...