Proof positive at last?

[Bill]

There is a court case going on between the Armenian Church and the Getty Trust.

From the wires:

The Western branch of "the oldest organized Christian Church in the world" is suing the J. Paul Getty Museum in L.A., demanding the return of 7 pages from a "magical" 750-year-old bible that was allegedly stolen during the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1918.

In documents filed yesterday in L.A. County Superior Court, the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America claims The Getty "acted in complete disregard" for the Church's rights in 1994 when it bought "stolen" pages of the Zeyt'un Gospels Bible.

The Church claims the Zeyt'un Bible was created for Constantine I by "the master illuminator T'oros Roslin" in 1256, and is one of Armenia's most valued national treasures. The Church believes the book "wielded supernatural powers."

When the Turks invaded Armenia in 1915, the suit claims, descendants of a royal Armenian family fled with the Bible, with whom it was thought to be safe. Yet, when the Bible was returned to Armenia following WWII, 7 key pages were missing ... pages that turned up at The Getty.

The Church claims it learned the Getty Museum had the pages in 2007, but the Getty has refused to return it. Now, the Church is asking the court to order the pages returned, and for damages of $35 million.

It could be that, to prove prior ownership, the court will task the Armenian Church with demonstrating the magical traits of the good book. If they are successful in showing us its miraculous powers, they will have earned more than $35 million in damages, but the eternal gratitude of every agnostic.

Stay tuned for further developments...

[godmachine]

Hope they hurry so I can breathe again

[NewPath]

I read that article a few days ago and had the same thought about them being able to prove magical powers.

It'll be interesting to watch what happens but I'd guess Getty's 35 million is pretty safe. That is, unless they just need to prove that the pages were stolen and they can be compensated for that alone.

But good luck on the magical stuff!...

[romansh]

Not exactly sure of the jurisdiction
but it is likely a civil court.

So the decision will be based the "balance of probabilities"
as opposed to:
"beyond a reasonable doubt"

ie so a loss for the plaintiffs would be pretty damning.

The miracle would be, of course, that not a single lawyer gets rich out of this.

[UnReAL]

So after all this time, we might found out that hocus-pocus could be real after all?

They tried saying the same thing about the Codex Gigas, except the hypothesis surrounding that book is that Satan himself had helped a priest write it. After carefully examining it, no supernatural forces or powers were demonstrated from it.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by UnReAL

... After carefully examining it, no supernatural forces or powers were demonstrated from it.

One of our theist friends tells me that God cannot be put on trial by humans - and I suppose from the same logic, neither can Satan.

When the lawyers tried to put him in the witness stand, I am not surprised that he refused to turn up. I bet once all the proceedings were complete, he gave the book back its forces and powers. You see if I am not right.

[alka]

so is it a bible or a book of magical spells

[Bill]

Both.

Well, actually neither - but that would only confuse matters.

[ApolloVeritas]

"Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down, $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home."

Pretty magical court decision by my standards. I wouldn't be shocked or surprised if Getty lost the 35 Million