Godblock Protects Your Kids From Religion On The Web

This is funny! I have no idea if this site is legitimate or what will happen if you install their software, but this is a funny concept. Godblock filters out religious websites from your children.

Here is how the site describes the software:

GodBlock is a web filter that blocks religious content. It is targeted at parents and schools who wish to protect their kids from the often violent, sexual, and psychologically harmful material in many holy texts, and from being indoctrinated into any religion before they are of the age to make such decisions. When installed properly, GodBlock will test each page that your child visits before it is loaded, looking for passages from holy texts, names of religious figures, and other signs of religious propaganda. If none are found, then your child is allowed to browse freely.


And here is their reasoning:

In the last century, the United States has seen a resurgence of fundamentalist religion. Fundamentalist Evangelicals, Mormons, Baptists, and Jews have held back progress in science, human rights, civil rights, and protecting our environment. How can we reverse this trend and join the rest of the world in the gradual secularization of society and government?


Most deeply religious people are born into their religion, but even children raised in a secular household are vulnerable to content on the web. That's why we've produced GodBlock. GodBlock is a web filter that blocks religious content. It is targeted at parents and schools who wish to protect their kids from the often violent, sexual, and psychologically harmful material in many holy texts, and from being indoctrinated into any religion before they are of the age to make such decisions.


Makes sense to me! Of course, using a filter as a "babysitter" for your kids, to protect them from content, doesn't seem like the best way to handle difficult material like sex or religion. (Then again, I'm not a mother, so maybe it's different if you have kids. I welcome your opinion).

I would think that you can't really shelter kids from religion. Letting them see it as the cultural dogma that it is and then explaining it to your kids might work better. If your children are too young to explain stuff to, they probably shouldn't be surfing the internet alone anyway.

But this is, at the very least, a very interesting proof of concept. I like it!

Like I said, though, I have no idea if this is legitimate and have no idea if the software is safe. If you use it, feel free to review it below.

14 comments:

  1. This just seems like another tool for religious Atheism...

    Isn't religion wrong because it suppresses reality?

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  2. "This just seems like another tool for religious Atheism…

    Isn’t religion wrong because it suppresses reality?"

    Religion isn't reality it's fantasy.

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  3. Unfortunately, if parents do not choose to provide some sort of appropriate religious understanding to their children, they will be ill- armed to contend with and/or resist the myriad attempts to proselytize them that they will endure while growing up to reach the age at which they might otherwise be able to make necessary decisons for themselves. Even if this software is real and as well intended as is suggested by this advertisement, it can, at best, allow parents the time and opportunity to provide the unbiased information their children will need before they are contaminated by internet contents (not to mention all the other sources of religious proselytizing) to which they will be exsposed. Baby-sitting may be all well and good, but parents still have to take care of their children most of the time.

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  4. Your reply doesn't make any sense...

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  5. This might be useful....

    No, not for 'babysitting': I AM a mom and have taken every opportunity to teach my kids about religions, all religions. I urge them to read the Bible and the Koran and a number of texts from other religions and we talk about it and apply internally consistent logic - this seems to me the most certain way they will not fall prey to religious propaganda.

    However, the kids might like this themselves. Especially my younger one, who has no desire to be bombarded with some of the religious 'stuff' on the internet, might enjoy this filter. Not for my 'peace of mind', but rather for his own convenience... Plus, some of the imagery truly is gruesome.

    As to protecting kids from religious propaganda: teach them to question everything and to apply logic. Teach, not limit!

    That will keep them safe!

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  6. Does this actually work?

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  7. There's no such thing as religious atheism. That's an oxymoron and has no meaning whatsoever.

    Religion is indoctrination, control, manipulation, superstition, lies, and mindless belief in the supernatural. If a parent wants to keep their children from having to deal with that, it doesn't then make their filtering out such harm into the harm itself.

    As I stated above, I think children need to learn about all religions, as cultural influences. They are part of our history and our lives now. Kids need to know about them. Just not as truth, but as culture.

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  8. Yes, I agree, parents need to parent. They need to guide and educate and inform their kids. It's a good point that the software could be more of a way to control the flood of religious information so that the parents can then educate at their own pace with the materials of their choosing.

    I also like what Xanthippa says below! It could be nice for kids who are tired of the tirade of religious propaganda, not because they need to be protected but because it's a nuisance. Then again, it might be nice for adults too. :P

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  9. And superstitious nonsense. And the opiate of the masses. :P

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  10. I'm not sure. I haven't tested it. I would recommend a virtual environment to test it, just to make sure it's not a virus or trojan, etc. I don't have a virtual machine so I haven't tested it myself.

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  11. Xanthippa, you are awesome. You're raising your kids to think for themselves and to be skeptical and to question everything. That's fantastic!

    Thanks for the comment. You made my week. It's great to know there's at least one mom out there teaching her kids to think. What a wonderful gift and what a great way to get them prepared for their lives.

    Thanks for your perspective on this. I hadn't thought of it that way. If I didn't need to see religious information for research, I'd consider it for myself, to avoid the nuisance of religious propaganda, so I can see that kids might want it for the same reason. :)

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  12. When my (recovering Catholic) Mom died, my boys were young. I told them they could think Grandma Gertie was in heaven with angel wings and a harp, or somewhere else equally ethereal to watch over them, or that she was reborn as whatever cat/bird/dragonfly they imagined, or that she lived in our memories, or believe whatever made them feel better for now.

    Later that year, my (fundamentalist Baptist) Father-in-law died, and my kids asked (equally fundamentalist) Grandma if she thought Grandpa Fred would come back as a horse or maybe a big dog? As she sputtered and prepared to explode, I took the kids outside and told them that this group only believed in the heaven/angel/wings/harp option.

    The boys were exposed to a variety of religious options, and yet have grown into moral, though not religious, young men.

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  13. Sounds like a good way to handle it.

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  14. I like this as a parody of such blockers, but I don't think atheists would generally advocate censorship. You never hear atheists asking libraries to remove the Bible from the shelves -- I think we'd all rather have religious concepts out in the open where they can be discussed and laughed at. The best protection against religion is actually READING the texts for oneself. :)

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