Why did the Mormon Joseph Smith steal temple hand shakes and rituals and symbols from the freemasons and does this make Mormonism less true since it didn't come from God but stolen from the freemasons?

Answer 1

The rituals and symbols in the temple are a combination of Ancient Christian symbolism (as found in catacombs, etc) and Joseph Smith's own ideas, with a few teaching tools of the freemasons thrown in. The fact of the matter is that really, ONE temple ritual follows a similar pattern as a freemason ritual, but the doctrine taught is completely different. Joseph never claimed to have been given the temple ordinances exactly as they are, he claimed that he was given INFORMATION and COVENANTS to be passed on, and how the information and covenants were to be passed on in a logical and memorable way was presumeably up to him to figure out.

If you are familiar with the freemasons or the Mormon temple ceremonies, you will note that teaching is done in a similar pattern (sequentially line upone line, with each level having an introduction, then the 'meat' of the teaching, followed by a covenant based on the teaching, all heavily laden with symbolism and multiple meanings.) The teaching and covenants are completely different, but the pattern is the same.