Freemasonry is the world's oldest social fraternity and largest charity.
If you want to join the fraternity, go to the Grand Lodge website for your jurisdiction (every state in the United States has a Grand Lodge, and most countries have one as well), use the Lodge locator, and find a Masonic Lodge near you. Contact the Secretary or the Master of the Lodge and inform them of your interest. Go down to the Lodge during public events and meet the members. Talk to them. Ask them your questions about the fraternity. If you like what you hear, ask for an application. It's that simple.
Freemasonry isn't a church, it isn't a substitute for one, and there are no religious rituals or religious ceremonies that take place within the Lodge. It is a fraternity; it does have it's ceremonies, and - like all fraternities - it does have it's rituals. None of them are evil, they're just private; open only to members of the fraternity.
NOTES:
- You DO NOT have to "get a freemason to invite you into his chapter."
- Freemasonry doesn't consist of 'chapters.'
- You will NOT "meet with three (?) masons," nor will they :present your case to that particular lodge." There is an interview process that starts after you turn in an application and it's read in Lodge. NO ONE 'presents' your case (whatever THAT means) to the Lodge.
- Freemasonry existed before the building Solomon's Temple; Solomon's temple wasn't the first building made of stone requiring Masons who were free to travel from country to country or kingdom to kingdom.
- Freemasons were not 'elite stone workers' at all; they just knew how to use geometry, which resulted in beautiful buildings that displayed symmetry and order.
- Freemasons NEVER started 'making their own belief system' EVER. Period. Freemasonry was a collection of worker's guilds which evolved into speculative Lodges and became a fraternity.
- No freemason arrived with the pilgrims. There were certainly builders who worked in stone, but a linear timeline clearly shows that no Freemason - as it is known today and has been known for the last 300 years - could have arrived on the Mayflower. The Mayflower transported pilgrims to America in 1620. Freemasonry as a fraternity didn't 'officially' start until 1717 at the Goose and Gridiron tavern.
- Thomas Jefferson wasn't a Freemason. Neither was John Adams.
- Most of the buildings in Washington D.C. were NOT designed by Freemasons.
- The Illuminati were NEVER 'close' to Freemasonry; Freemasonry is a social fraternity where religion and politics aren't discussed. The Illuminati existed PRIMARILY as a political group. Duh.
- The Illuminati never "broke off" from Freemasonry in the "early years of America." The Illuminati were a BAVARIAN group that had nothing at all to do with America, the French creator of the Statue of Liberty, or anything at all in Freemasonry. Duh.
- Freemasonry does NOT "believe in a God-like being." Freemasonry is a social fraternity, not a religion. Duh.
- Freemasonry is not "very hard to join." You ask for an application. It's that simple and easy to join.
- You do not - and will not - get "invited" to join the fraternity. YOU have to ask; Freemasonry does not recruit.