Religion Is The Crown Of Morality, Not Its Base. The Base Of Morality Is In Itself.

Pike makes a distinction between religion and morality when he writes, “Religion is the crown of Morality, not its base. The base of Morality is in itself.” Have you ever heard someone say, “you don’t need religion to be a good person?” I have. Well, in essence, Pike is saying that morality, like philosophy, predates religion. This thought aligns well with his other writings on similar topics. Enjoy this short lesson from our great Masonic sage:

Thus there is a side on which morality touches religion. It is a sublime necessity of Humanity to see in God the Legislator supremely wise, the Witness always present, the infallible judge of virtue. The human mind, ever climbing up to God, would deem the foundations of morality too unstable, if it did not place in God the first principle of the moral law. Wishing to give to the moral law a religious character, we run the risk of taking from it its moral character. We may refer it so entirely to God as to make His will an arbitrary degree. But the will of God, whence we deduce morality, in order to give it authority, itself has no moral authority, except as it is just. The Good comes from the will of God alone; but from His will, in so far as it is the expression of His wisdom and justice. The Eternal Justice of God is the sole foundation of Justice, such as Humanity perceives and practises it. The Good, duty, merit and demerit, are referred to God, as everything is referred to him; but they have none the less a proper evidence and authority. Religion is the crown of Morality, not its base. The base of Morality is in itself (Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, 1871, p. 725-726).

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