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[Aqizzar]

Treating witchcraft as a crime requires the law to recognize that witchcraft WORKS and is not just poppycock, which would of course send any reasonable legal system into the pits of oblivion.

If someone goes around selling their services as a Rainmaker, people pay him, then they sue him for fraud when the rain doesn't show up, would the ruling determine whether rainmaking is real?  I'm honestly stumped on that.

Well personally I'd throw the case out, since in my view people have a right to use their money how they want, and I say fraud can only apply if there could be a reasonable expectation of the services actually being delivered. If you ruled that it WAS fraud, then you'd be implying that there was reason to expect the rain to come, which would imply that the lawgivers thought rainmaking worked.

I hope this doesn't start an argument, but I just had a really awful idea.  I know people have been sued for negligent manslaughter or whatever, for letting their kids die by relying on Faith Healing instead of real medicine.  I don't know how they panned out.  But if established that the faith healing in place of medicine was not grounds for negligence, then you could use that precedent as proof that supernatural services are still real services.

I'm not sure who you could get around to suing first armed with such foreknowledge, but I know there'd be money to make.

[Jude]

Yikes!

[Strife26]

Law of the land says you can't claim supernatural stuff as anything other than entertainment. So if my faith healer claims that he can help, and he doesn't, you can usually sue for fraud.

[Jude]

Law of the land says you can't claim supernatural stuff as anything other than entertainment.

Really?

I find it sort of objectionable that such a law exists, apparently to protect stupid people.

[IronyOwl]

...arguably, ALL laws are designed to protect stupid people. This is pushing the definition of "stupid" in many cases, but it's still arguable.

Treating witchcraft as a crime requires the law to recognize that witchcraft WORKS and is not just poppycock, which would of course send any reasonable legal system into the pits of oblivion.

If someone goes around selling their services as a Rainmaker, people pay him, then they sue him for fraud when the rain doesn't show up, would the ruling determine whether rainmaking is real?  I'm honestly stumped on that.

I believe this would depend on what was purchased, which I suppose in many cases would be subjective. If you bought "additional rain," then he failed to provide you with the indicated service and is guilty of fraud; whether or not it's physically possible to do such a thing is irrelevant (I think). If you bought "the dance of storms," he provided the indicated service and is not guilty of fraud. If you bought "the services of a rainmaker"... well, now we have to legally define rainmaking, which probably means lumping it with other things under some Not-Covered-Under-The-Law umbrella specifically to avoid having to make such a ruling.

But if established that the faith healing in place of medicine was not grounds for negligence, then you could use that precedent as proof that supernatural services are still real services.

I'm not sure who you could get around to suing first armed with such foreknowledge, but I know there'd be money to make.

Immunity to false advertising claims comes to mind. Arguably you could get away with suing people for cursing/not healing you or something, but that could get hard to prove beyond he-said she-said very quickly.

[Pandarsenic]

Aqizzar, you're a bloody genius.

We need to set up for a class-action suit.

[Aqizzar]

Just remember, the next time you pay for a Raindance, get the whole agreement in writing - make sure you're paying for the rain and not the dance.

[Rooster]

You people scare me.
And I honestly expect it to find it's way into the real world somehow.
The news even.
Because we know someone will try it.

[alway]

Eh, witchcraft is a serious thing. Doesn't matter whether or not it works, but if you're trying to use it to kill people and stuff, you should be arrested for attempted murder. Or if you're using demons to steal, arrested for attempted robbery, etc.

Treating witchcraft as a crime requires the law to recognize that witchcraft WORKS and is not just poppycock, which would of course send any reasonable legal system into the pits of oblivion.

Ya, we tried that once...

[Jude]

...arguably, ALL laws are designed to protect stupid people. This is pushing the definition of "stupid" in many cases, but it's still arguable.

Well, but this is a far more extreme example than normal. A reasonable person can expect to, say, invest their money with a reputable banker and not have it snapped up into a Ponzi scheme. A reasonable person living in the US cannot expect rain to be produced by a rain dance, or, I'd argue, illness to be zapped away by faith healing.

[RedKing]

A reasonable person in the 21st century maybe.

19th century America (and even early 20th century) was full of faith healers, rainmakers, snake oil salesmen, and other assorted charlatans and con men. The best typically used a veneer of "science" to prop up their credibility.

"A rain dance? Of course not, that's silly. Now my Oscillo-Tympanic Hydro-Regurgitator...that's a guarantee!"
"How does it work?"
"Um...you know...SCIENCE!"



Oh, and honestly at this point, I'd have more faith in a rain dance than in the American banking system.

[ChairmanPoo]

"A rain dance? Of course not, that's silly. Now my Oscillo-Tympanic Hydro-Regurgitator...that's a guarantee!"
"How does it work?"
"Um...you know...SCIENCE!"

as if this didn't happen nowadays...

[Zironic]

"A rain dance? Of course not, that's silly. Now my Oscillo-Tympanic Hydro-Regurgitator...that's a guarantee!"
"How does it work?"
"Um...you know...SCIENCE!"

as if this didn't happen nowadays...

What happened to that one guy who had a box that supposedly "made" energy from nothing using ripples in the universe?

[CJ1145]

What happened to that one guy who had a box that supposedly "made" energy from nothing using ripples in the universe?

I assume the box mistook him for a ripple, and subsequently devoured him.

[Aqizzar]

A bit of news entirely relevant to the thread - "God has spoken!  He wants your children!"

Not only is it not the 21st Century in all parts of the world, but the 21st Century isn't really all it was cracked up to be.