Belief and religion are not the same thing
Don't get belief mixed up with religion. One can believe without being ruled by a religious order. I hold my own personal belief system, not one imposed on me by someone, supposedly appointed by a deity. A religion requires that you have faith in what they tell you, or what they have written, Freemasonry requires that you question, study and learn, most particularly about the sciences, about arts and about yourself. It's one of the reasons religious orders have always had a problem with the craft, some of them prefer blind faith to free thought, it's better for purposes of control.

Oh, and as for your choice of deity as a supreme being, if you truly believed, for instance, in Satan as the top dog, fine, if you can square the morality of wanting to be in a society intended to help mankind, with your personal beliefs and not feel a hypocrite, you'd be welcome in our lodge. We'll never question someone's beliefs, only whether they are behaving as a good mason.
(lardyboy Next stop, Fissplap Central, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:53, 1 reply)

Doesn't fly with me
Belief, religion. Call it what you want, the semantics are unimportant. The UGLE site states unambiguously that you must believe in a Supreme Being to be accepted. That's a God, not just a "personal belief system", although once again, labels are not the issue. I'm with emvee on this one, it just seems like an organisation with noble goals which is shackled by outdated rules and elitist mysticism.
( chart cat has an itch, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 15:54, closed)

Still can't see what the problem is
Apart from the fact that there is a massive difference between an organised religion and someone's own personal beliefs, I still can't see what the problem is. Are you this annoyed at the Pope for not letting you be a priest? You're excluded from a whole career structure there, for not believing in the holy trinity. That's shocking that is. Why would you be agrieved at not being able to do something that I'd hazard a guess that you woudn't really want to do anyway?
(lardyboy Next stop, Fissplap Central, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 16:30, closed)