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.

For some time I’ve been working behind the scenes on a way for atheists and people questioning their faith to talk to someone who can give some friendly atheist advice. With the help of my fellow Morgantown Atheists friends, we have started a voice mail system, an email address and a website called Atheist Hotline!

Ways to Contact Us:

You can call, email or post a question on the site now. The phone number is to a voice mail system. We are volunteering this service so we will get back to you as soon as we can. Leave your email address if you call, too please. It will be easiest for us to get back to you by email.

Our Goals:

  • Let atheists know they are not alone
  • Clear up common misconceptions about atheists in general
  • Provide people with information resources when needed
  • Personal experiences from atheists to help you with your perspective
  • Carefully helping people who are questioning their faith – in need of reason, etc.
  • Carefully helping atheists who have troubles with their family
  • Offering moral support to atheists and people questioning their faith
  • Friendly advice from atheists

What we’re NOT: Read the rest of this entry »

As you may know, I’m the co-cat herder (co-director) of Morgantown Atheists, a local group for unbelievers. I’m also the coordinator for Morgantown Coalition of Reason, an umbrella organization that encompasses Morgantown Atheists and other local groups so that we can work together in the name of Reason.

The funny thing is, I’m not really a people person. Like a lot of atheists (supposedly), I’m quite an outsider, as much of a hermit as I can get away with, in fact. I have never liked going out in crowds or socializing with large groups of people.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I have realized something that I want to share with you. Even though I’m a curmudgeonly hermit-y atheist, I love going to the 3 atheist/freethinker meetings we have every month. That’s 3 Sundays a month where I happily leave the house and go socialize with a small group of people. And I look forward to it. The one or 2 Sundays where we don’t meet I miss it.

Even people like me benefit from social community and contact. The beauty of the atheist/freethinker community is that we are relatively like-minded. We have a foundation of common ground. But we are also quite different, of course, which is good because that makes things interesting. The added bonus of freethinkers, skeptics and atheists is that we seem relatively level-headed (overall – there are exceptions,  of course) and we argue and discuss matters with interest and fairness. No drama llama is invited! So it’s actually fun and mentally stimulating.

I think we all need some type of community, which is one thing that religion has in its favor that being a lone atheist does not.

But this is easily remedied. I thought I’d share some thoughts on how to get involved with a secular group of like-minded people. If none exist in your area, you can start one up.

Tips For Finding A Local Atheist/Humanist/Freethinker/Skeptical Community Read the rest of this entry »

So yesterday was the Spring (Vernal) Equinox in the northern hemisphere. It was at 12:32 pm to be exact. Many different cultures have celebrated in different ways. But my friends and I at Morgantown Atheists thought we’d celebrate in our own way. We got together, ate delicious food, talked about anything and everything, had a book meeting, had a Nature Walk on our friends’ farm and generally enjoyed ourselves, nature, and spring returning.

I thought I’d share some pictures from our Nature Walk.

In our conversations we talked about how people struggle when they are questioning their faith. It’s different for everyone, but some of the big things you have to give up are:

  • Your consciousness living forever in heaven. Life after death.
  • Someone thinking for you, telling you what your morals are, and spoon-feeding you the big answers to questions about why we’re here, etc.
  • Community from your church. Sometimes this is everyone you know. Family and friends. Read the rest of this entry »

1008I can’t remember who twittered this yesterday, but I noticed this site: The Center for Atheist Research.

Want to help researchers learn about atheists, brights and humanists and how we think? I took the atheist survey yesterday and it was quite thorough. It took about 25 minutes at the most, and I felt like I was being counted, so to speak. As a housewife activist atheist, I really don’t fit what people think “nones” are, so it’s nice to share my worldview with people interested in looking at such things.

Oh, it’s completely confidential. They don’t take any personal information so if you’re in the closet don’t worry, you’re secret is safe with them.

Here’s what they say on their home page:

Atheists and other secularists who have a naturalistic worldview (a philosophy of life that does not involve a belief in God, higher powers, or anything supernatural) have been understudied by the social sciences.
The Center for Atheist Research was founded to address this omission, and seeks to give individuals across the religious/spiritual/secular spectrum the chance to contribute their perspective on topics within the psychology and sociology of atheism and secularity by participating in Internet-accessible academic research.

You can choose from the following current research studies:

picdump-20Butch and I had Brent and Tim (my fellow Morgantown Atheists cohorts) over for dinner the other night. (oh, and Tim brought his standard poodle Lucy, who was highly interesting to my crazy mutts. They were in love with her sexy Frenchness!) Anyway, over pizza, Tim challenged me to come up with my own personal list of 10 Commandments. The New 10 Commandments.

First let’s look at the old fashioned set that so many people want festooned on government property to hopefully force everyone to be good, obedient, god-fearing christians.

According to the bible, there are 3 sets of commandments by Moses’ god. (see Wikipedia’s page here)

Most of these commandments are the words of an angry, jealous, childish god. They aren’t helpful, moral or ethical. They don’t advance us as a species. In fact they hold us back with threats and superstitions.

So here’s my task, which I will gladly share with you: Read the rest of this entry »

If I believed in divine providence I would say that destiny helped me stumble upon the following movie. But I’m as godless as can be, so I just have to thank whoever posted Religulous to AtheistNation. I don’t go to the movies, so I didn’t get to see it in the theaters. But I watched it a bit ago and I have to say I’m glad I did. It was excellent.

Here is the full movie (140 minutes)


I learned some interesting facts and tidbits, but most of what Bill Maher finds out in these interviews around the world are not new to me. But combined with his commentary, it is interesting and provocative, to say the least. Read the rest of this entry »