Great Architect of the Universe (GAOTU) is a term used within Freemasonry to denominate the Supreme Being to which each member individually holds an adherence.

Freemasonry is a fraternal body which accept initiates of many faiths, using metaphors of architecture, and construction to inculcate moral, ethical and philosophical principles in the participants. The allegorical working of its ritual is based around the construction of Solomon's Temple as relayed in Tanakh. The GAOTU is also represented by the Hebrew letters Tetragrammaton in many Masonic tracing boards.

Speculative Commentary

An architect is not only a person responsible for creating a building, but a person using principles of mathematics and geometry to design the construction in a rational, harmonious manner. Moreover, once the plan or blueprint has been made, the architect will in general no longer intervene in the process of construction unless there is a requirement for a change to the design. If the deity is such an architect, this means that the universe follows rational, understandable principles or "laws", which, once laid down, cannot be changed.

This conception of deism, in contrast to the alternative concept of theism in which the creator regularly intervenes and performs various miracles that cannot be explained, provides a direct foundation for modern science. This may explain why the roots of modern science can be traced back to early FreemasonsEnglish Speculative Freemasonry: Some possible Origins, Themes and Developments. The Prestonian Lecture for 2004 in Ars Quatuor Coronatum 2004 by Trevor Stewart, pub London 2005 amongst others who were the founders of the Royal Society of LondonThe Invisible College: The Royal Society, Freemasonry and the Birth of Modern Science by Robert Lomas, pub London 2003, the first scientific association in the world.

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