"cannot be Freemasons because of the basically deist philosophy that it teaches."
Oh come on, if you are a mason, you know that masons are not "deist"
A deist believes that God in uninvolved in human affairs.
Every mason is taught, before embarking in any undertaking to give thanks and pray to God --- a practice completely incompatable with being a deist.
(Note, I know nothing about the Scottish Rite, only the blue lodge and York Rite.)
Blue Lodge, Scottish Rite and York Rite.
Wikipedia says that:
"Classical Deism (i.e. Deism as it was generally expounded in the 17th and 18th centuries) was defined by:
* the rejection of revealed religion — In general, this included the rejection of all religions based on books that claim to contain the revealed word of God. Specifically, this meant a rejection of Christianity, and in particular a rejection of the claim that the Bible is the revealed word of God.
* belief that rational consideration of features of the natural world leads us to some basic religious truths — The small set of basic deistic religious truths generally included:
o God exists and created the universe.
o God wants human beings to behave morally.
o Human beings have souls that survive death, i.e. there is an afterlife.
o In the afterlife, God will reward moral behavior and punish immoral behavior.
For a rational basis for belief in the existence of God, Deists appealed to the cosmological argument (first cause argument), the teleological argument (argument from design), and other aspects of what was called natural religion. Deists were some of the first freethinkers as they were among many during the Enlightenment they utilized reason and applied it to the theological.
The modern revival of deism is a broad umbrella since it is a category of belief and it covers a wide variety of individual beliefs. Most modern deists agree in the rejection of revelation/miracles/holy books and in the acceptance of a higher power but there is a wide variety of opinions on other issues."
The lodges I attended always had a Bible (rather than other religious text) opened during the ceremony, the prayers are to the Architect of the Universe.
But the the Muslim Mason is to worship and serve Allah; the Hindu Mason to worship and serve Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva; the Buddhist Mason to worship Buddha and various Buddhist deities; the Mormon Mason to worship Mormonism's own gods; and the pagan Mason to worship any variety of additional gods.
Funny, I never looked at it that way before. The Supreme Architect of the Universe is whatever god you want. That's pretty anti Christian right there.