iPhone Applications for the Pseudoscientific July 19, 2009

iPhone Applications for the Pseudoscientific

By Guest Contributor
July 19, 2009

Crispian has compiled a list of the number of iPhone apps that cater to the religious/pseudoscientific.

Here’s a taste of it:

Paranormal Woo
Astrology – 65 Apps
Tarot Cards – 61 Apps
Psychic – 60 Apps
Fortune Telling – 41 Apps
Voodoo – 41 Apps
Numerology – 32 Apps
Palm Reading – 28 Apps
Ouija – 15 Apps
Dowsing -1 App

My concern is that these apps are being made because people are downloading them and some are taking them seriously. And I can’t imagine all these are free… so people are paying for iPhone “Tarot cards,” as if they weren’t fake enough to begin with.

(An iPhone dowsing app? Really?)

You know what would sell to atheists? An app in which you type in the name of an alcoholic beverage… Then, Christopher Hitchens‘ face appears, with a moving mouth, and tells you the ingredients in that drink.

I want royalties when that gets made.

(via Science, Reason, and Critical Thinking)

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  • Call it an investment, H. You buy the tarot application, charge $2 a reading, never have to replace your cards, and profit off of people’s gullibility.

    Makes sense, if you’re into that sort of predatory arrangement.

  • Physicsguy

    So far, the only atheistic app I’ve seen is mAtheist. It gives you some decent and funny quotes from atheists. It’s not bad, but there should be more atheistic apps.

  • Apps like “MyTime” (for JWs to keep track of their proselytizing) are even scarier as far as I’m concerned.

  • There are lots of apps out there for those of us in the reality-based community, it’s just that they’re not labelled as “apps for atheists”.

    For example instead of the dowsing app, those of us who are rational can use Google Maps.

  • How about a networkable Bingo app for Church fundraisers? Or something called iTithe, which automatically sends 10% of your cellphone bill to the megachurch of your choice? Obviously the app developers are only scratching the surface of the huge religious market.

    Just be glad that Apple’s not quite money-grubbing enough to allow someone to put an app to turn an iPhone into a carbomb detonator up on the app store.

  • Veritas

    Martin….you and me buddy, let’s make an iTithe and sell it for $2.99. We’ll be rich, rich!

  • my first reaction to the number of woo-based apps, is: how soon can I develop one to relieve the sheeple of their money?

  • Sandra

    You have all this, but didn’t mention the Purity Ring app for iPhone.

    Sadly, I am not joking.
    Here is an article about it.

  • I have a Carpenter app, which includes a (virtual) plumb bob. Surely this can be used as a dowsing pendulum!

  • BathTub

    Get Hammered with Hitchens, sounds like a winner to me. The more drinks you request in a session the more sloshed he should become.

  • James H

    I wonder if voodoo apps are meant to enact sympathetic magic, or if they’re just a way to help you feel better by sticking pins in somebody you don’t like.

  • Actually, the dowsing one is pretty brilliant. You could sell it to people who think they’re actually using it to dowse, and then you release the source code which shows that you’re just using the levelling sensors to make the rods turn. No magic at all.

  • Rob

    PhysicsGuy: I don’t have an iPhone, but I have a bunch of atheistic applications for my G1.

    For example, Google Maps. I can ask it to search for God, and it doesn’t find anything relevant. I can even pull up a satellite photo of Mount Olympus, and it shows me a barren peak with absolutely no big angry dudes on it.

    Or ConnectBot, which I use to connect remotely to the server I use for research and make it do more science while I’m away. Not once has a god messed with my results.

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