Shroud of Turin Topics 2008: Thinking About Authenticity

Talk on Shroud of Turin Carbon Dating Problem by Los Alamos Scientist at Ohio State University

All five segments run about 40 minutes in total. It is well worth watching:

 

Shroud of Turin Ohio State University Villarreal Lecture Part 1 of 5 (Above)

Shroud of Turin Ohio State University Villarreal Lecture Part 2 of 5

Shroud of Turin Ohio State University Villarreal Lecture Part 3 of 5

Shroud of Turin Ohio State University Villarreal Lecture Part 4 of 5

Shroud of Turin Ohio State University Villarreal Lecture Part 5 of 5

Nicholas Allen’s Ridiculous Photography Idea

The Weekend Post in Nelson Mandela Bay reports that Nicholas Allen expects to get some documentary coverage of his theory that continues to push his theory that “the Shroud of Turin is physical evidence that people understood at least the rudiments of primitive photography about five centuries before its accepted discovery in 1799 by Thomas Wedgewood.”

The theory is ludicrous. As one commenter wrote:

Allen's hypothesis is sheer nonsense. It has so many holes you could drive a truck through it, starting with how do you get back to back images on his hypothesis. Moreover, just try to get the cloth to body distance 3D effect using his mechanism? It won't work and then you have the problem of registry of the blood and image since the blood went on before the image.

Here is the article:

AN international television documentary on the controversial Shroud of Turin, which has just been completed, features the work of a Nelson Mandela Bay academic who has been researching the ancient relic for more than a decade.

The Shroud is purported to be the cloth in which the body of Jesus Christ was buried.

Professor Nicholas Allen‘s research resulted in a book in which he explained how the shroud, which appears to carry the imprinted form of Christ, was actually “the first photograph”.

Pioneer Studios from Hammersmith in London filmed the documentary on the mystery behind one of the Catholic Church‘s most important relics, and it will be aired by the Discovery Channel.

The Shroud of Turin was proved to be a 13th or 14th century forgery by carbon dating techniques in 1988 – but that scientific conclusion hasn‘t altogether dispelled the firm belief among many Christians that it is a holy relic.

Allen, formerly dean of the faculty of arts and design at the then Port Elizabeth Technikon, is a sculptor and art historian.

“The documentary is intended to offer a more balanced appraisal of the Shroud‘s import. Apparently another recent documentary was aired in the USA and gave the impression that the shroud was a miracle, so the Discovery Channel decided to commission Pioneer Studios to make a more objective documentary to counter this,” said Allen.

A number of researchers and historians were interviewed for the documentary, mostly Americans.

“I was asked to reconstruct my own experiments from the early 1990s and was also interviewed. My interview took place in the UK at a venue just outside Oxford. For this, I reconstructed a camera obscura, a screen for suspending the shroud and a gibbet for suspending a fibre-glass corpse.”

Allen started his research on the Shroud of Turin out of a passion for history and out of curiosity.

He said he chose his avenue of research because “nobody was looking at how a forgery was made. I started to find out how they did it.

“I started to look at it as a phenomenon and the obvious conclusion it was a photograph.

“Most of my research was based on published work by other researchers. I saw the Shroud of Turin for the first time at the new Millennium exhibition in 2000 in Italy.”

Allen‘s research was published as a thesis, and later in 1998, he published a book The Turin Shroud and the Crystal Lens: Testament to a Lost Technology.

Allen believes the Shroud of Turin is physical evidence that people understood at least the rudiments of primitive photography about five centuries before its accepted discovery in 1799 by Thomas Wedgewood.

In 1988, carbon dating was done by three institutions which came up with exactly the same conclusion that the linen of the shroud was grown between 1260 and 1390.

Exhibition of the Shroud of Turin Coming to Birmingham, England

Peter Jennings in The Times:

A free exhibition on the Turin Shroud, the image believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus, will be held in Birmingham for week from this Saturday (Feb 21st) until next (Feb 28)

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols is recommending a visit to The Cross, The Resurrection and the Shroud of Turin as “an excellent way to begin” Lent.

He said the exhibition, which he had visited in Little Aston in September helped visitors “enter more deeply into the sufferings of Our Lord.”

The Archbishop added: “I am delighted that this remarkable exhibition is coming to St Chad’s Cathedral.”

It has been put together by Pam Moon, lay minister at St Peter’s Anglican Church, Little Aston in the Diocese of Lichfield, where her husband, the Rev Phil Moon is vicar.

Full story: Free Turin Shroud exhibition to open in Birmingham -Times Online. Sourced for cross posting from A Blogspotting Anglican Episcopalian

Discovery Channel to Broadcast Unwrapping the Shroud: New Evidence

The special will be rebroadcast on Sunday, February 1 at 9 p.m. Eastern and again at 1 a.m., four hours later. It will be broadcast on Discovery’s regular and HD channels.

This Shroud of Turin documentary was first shown in December and received numerous positive reviews. Part of it was recorded at Ohio State University during a conference of about 100 scientists, historians and other researchers last August.

Discovery is featuring the broadcast on their home page and that is warranted. In my opinion, it is the best documentary ever made about the shroud, even better than the 2002 PBS special. Watch it!

It clearly explains why the previous carbon dating has been shown to be invalid by peer-reviewed scientific studies including the work of Raymond Roger and subsequently a team of nine scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

If you have wondered about the shroud, this is an excellent production. Even if you are skeptical, it will help explain why many people believe it is genuine or are at least open to the possibility that it is.

See: Unwrapping the Shroud: New Evidence

Blog Spotting the Shroud of Turin

James Wigderson writes at Wigderson Library & Pub: Evidence and faith:

Those interested in the debate surrounding the Shroud of Turin will be interested in the Shroud of Turin Blog.

Scientifically, we don't know the age of the Shroud of Turin. However, we do know it is at least twice as old as the now discredited carbon 14 date. As for the images, we have no idea how they are formed. But they were not made by any known artistic method.

The Atheist, the skeptic, the rationalist must accept the scientific facts just as any Christian should. To deny that the shroud is authentic requires a leap of faith. So does affirmation. But the evidence suggests that it is a late-Second Temple era burial shroud of a crucifixion victim. From that, much can be inferred.

We are in awe of that which cannot be explained except by accepting the miracle before us, regardless of its origin. The Shroud will be on display to the public in Turin in 2010.

Absurd "The Shroud is a Fake" Article at Suite101.com

Shroud of Turin Blog nails it with Ridiculous ‘Shroud is fake’ article at Suite101.com

An absolutely ridiculous article appears at Suite101.com. The title is “The Shroud of Turin Debunked: A Forged Christian Relic.” There are two clues: 1) It cites a piece from a 2004 issue of Skeptical Inquirer which accused Public Broadcasting System (PBS) of burying the truth about the shroud and 2) it deals only with selective evidence.

Resting in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy is a fourteen-foot-long linen cloth whose long history has been rife with controversy. Though believers in the shroud’s authenticity are undeterred by skeptics’ arguments, the bulk of the evidence indicates that the shroud is certainly a medieval forgery.

Well, let’s look at that evidence:

Biblical and Historical Evidence

Joe Nickell, in an article from the July/August 2004 issue of Skeptical Inquirer entitled “PBS ‘Secrets of the Dead’ Buries the Truth About Turin Shroud,” points out several facts that call the shroud’s authenticity into doubt. First of all, the Bible itself, specifically the Gospel of John, explicitly states that the crucified body of Jesus was wrapped in several cloths, including a separate cloth covering the face.

That is true, but totally irrelevant. Because there were several cloths, according to the Gospel of John, does not in any way rule out that one of those cloths might have been saved. There is no logic to such a statement. Moreover, this is selective use of gospel narrative by someone who also, elsewhere, debunks biblical narratives.

Second, the figure of Jesus on the shroud conforms to artistic representations of him from the fourteenth century; the body is elongated, as was common in Gothic art, and bears a striking resemblance to other depictions of Christ from that period.

Actually, that is a real stretch. The visual arts (paintings and sketches) of that period were very primitive and lacked anatomical precision found in the shroud. Moreover, at the time no artists would have painted the hand wounds in the wrists (they were always in the palms) or painted the body naked.

Third, and most damningly, there is no mention of the shroud in historical records at all until 1389. In that year, in a report to Pope Clement IV, a bishop openly admits the shroud was “cunningly painted” to perpetrate a “fraud” involving “pretended miracles.”

By the way, not 1389 but 1349.

Good grief! Most artifacts from antiquity lack written records that go back to their provenance. And as historians and archeologists well know, there are always gaps in records. In fact, there is a drawing of a shroud from 1192 in the Pray Codex found in the Budapest Museum (nearly a century earlier than the earliest carbon 14 date) that is clearly identifiable from particular features as the current Shroud of Turin. It is well known that a cloth with an image believed to be of Jesus existed in Edessa as documented by Eusebius of Caesarea in the early 4th century. According to Eusebius (and this must be considered legend) the cloth was brought to Edessa by the apostle Thomas or the disciple Thadeus. In 544 a cloth with an image thought to be of Jesus was found concealed above a gate in the city walls of Edessa. That cloth was transferred to Constantinople on August 14, 944. It was, at that time, described as a full-length burial cloth with an image of Jesus and bloodstains.

In 1204, following the sacking of Constantinople, it became the property of Othon de la Roche, the French Duke of Athens and Thebes. He sent it to his home in the town of Besançon, France in 1207. At Eastertide, it was removed from his castle and displayed in the Besançon Cathedral until the cathedral was destroyed by fire in March of 1349. Any records that might have existed may have been burned in that fire as all church records were destroyed (not an uncommon problem for historians). In that same year, Geoffroy de Charny, a French knight married Jeanne de Vergy, a grand-niece of Othon de la Roche, and delivered a/the shroud to the canons of Lirey, thereby creating the earliest extant record in Western Europe.

As for the memorandum of Pierre d’Arcis, the Bishop of Troyes, the letter is a draft piece and is believed by historians to refer to a painting that was made of the shroud and not the shroud, itself.

General Physical Evidence

The figure of Jesus has other unusual properties. For one thing, the image is not distorted, as it would be if it were the impression of a three-dimensional body wrapped in cloth; one has only to smear a napkin with mustard and press it against one’s face to see that the resulting two-dimensional image looks nothing like the figure on the shroud.

Actually, that presumes that the image is a contact image. Given that no one knows how the image was formed, the statement is not helpful. In fact, no one believes that the image is a contact image.

Christ’s hair hangs downward, like that of a standing person, and the suspiciously bright red “blood” on the shroud appears to be painted on top of the hair rather than saturated within it.

Image analysis shows that the hair does not hang down. There are two dark bands on each side of the face (that are not part of the face but run upward and downward beyond the face) and these create something of an optical illusion of hair hanging down. Nickell knows this but chooses to ignore it.

In addition, the cloth itself is a 3:1 herringbone twill, of which no examples have been found from the first century, when the shroud was supposed to have originated.

No have any sample of 3 over 1 herringbone twill been found in the medieval era.

Scientific Tests

Pieces of the shroud were carbon-dated in 1987 by three separate laboratories. All three — at Oxford, Zurich, and the University of Arizona — produced a date of origin circa 1260–1390, which is consistent with the time the shroud turned up in the historical record.

Actually the correct date is 1988, not 1987. All three labs ran the same tests on pieces of a single sample. No, all three labs did not arrive at the same date range. That is a statistical combination of the results from the three labs.

However, tests recently conducted at the Los Alamos National Laboratory by a team of nine scientists under the direction of Robert Villarreal confirm what chemist Raymond Rogers found and published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Thermochimica Acta (Jan. 2005): The tested sample was not representative of the shroud’s cloth. Rogers’ findings had also been confirmed by Georgia Tech’s materials forensic chemist John L. Brown.

This is part of the problem in basing an article mostly on a single 2004 article. Research would have reveal this.

Tests of the “blood” were carried out by microanalyst Walter McCrone over a period of years, and the findings were consistent with the image being created with tempera paint.

Actually that statement is completely false. Walter McCrone did conclude that the bloodstains, and indeed the images, were painted, but it was not over a period of years. He wrote his conclusion in the same year that he carried out his microscopic inspection of fibers taken from the shroud.

However, Mark Anderson, who worked for McCrone, examined the fibers using laser microprobe Raman spectrometry and found that what McCrone thought was (inorganic) paint was in fact an organic substance. Previously, the shroud (and not just fibers) had been observed with visible and ultraviolet spectrometry, infrared spectrometry, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and thermography. No paint was found. Later, pyrolysis-mass-spectrometry tests conducted at the Mass Spectrometry Center of Excellence at the University of Nebraska, on fibers examined by McCrone, were unable to detect any paint particles or painting medium.

Moreover, immunological, fluorescence and spectrographic tests, as well as Rh and ABO typing of blood antigens, reveal that the stains are human blood.  Many of the bloodstains have the distinctive forensic signature of clotting with red corpuscles about the edge of a clot with a clear yellowish halo of serum. The heme was converted into its parent porphyrin, and the spectra examined. The bloodstains are blood. Microchemical tests for proteins were positive in blood areas. Much of this work is published in peer reviewed scientific journals including Archeological Chemistry: Organic, Inorganic, and Biochemical Analysis (American Chemical Society), Applied Optics and the Canadian Society of Forensic Sciences Journal.

Now, here we get slightly more current.

There has been enormous controversy over the scientific testing, with some authenticity advocates like the late Ray Rogers (writing in the May/June 2005 issue of Skeptical Inquirer) insisting that the carbon dating samples were contaminated. However, in light of the mountain of evidence pointing to forgery, and considering the fact that at least one modern artist has produced a comparable fake, it seems clear that the shroud, while a splendid artistic object, is nonetheless not the burial shroud of a savior that its believers wish it to be.

Actually, it is much more than Rogers. It is Brown and Villarreal and his team and Benford and Marino, etc. A good set of references for a current, carefully researched article would include material published in 2008.

• Peer reviewed scientific journal: Chemistry Today (Vol 26, Num 4, Jul/Aug 2008), “Discrepancies in the radiocarbon dating area of the Turin shroud”,  Benford M.S., Marino J.G.
• Peer-reviewed conference paper (Aug 2008), “Analytical Results on Thread Samples Taken from the Raes Sampling Area (Corner) of the Shroud Cloth” Robert Villarreal (Paper and video presentation awaiting publication, see Ohio State University Shroud of Turin Conference Press Release)
• Peer reviewed scientific journal: Thermochimica Acta (Vol 425, Jan 2005) “Studies on the Radiocarbon Sample from the Shroud of Turin”, Rogers, R.N.

You don’t need to believe it is real or that it is fake. But you have to do the research and use real facts in writing an article such as this.

Christians Forums has interesting Shroud of Turin Discussion on Authenticity

Source: Shroud of Turin Blog, Interesting Shroud of Turin Discussion in Christians Forums. It does start out lame but then gets going.

It starts with this:

So… since it didn’t pop up until the 1300’s… whatcha think of this “cloth that was the burial shroud of christ”?  Do you think it’s real? Sham? Somewhere in between?

It gets interesting when somebody calling himself OrthodoxyUSA chimes in. He is well informed. See Shroud of Turin - Christian Forums

Shroud of Turin Copy Displayed at Anglican Church

From A Blogspotting Anglican Episcopalian

This story caught my attention. East Anglia Seminarians: Facsimile of the Shroud of Turin at Anglican Church

The  East Anglia Seminarians report:

On Saturday we went to see one of four life-size facsimiles of the Shroud of Turin, which is on display in an Anglican church in Little Aston. It was bought for the vicar’s wife by a friend off Ebay, of all places! I went along, fairly indifferently I must admit, as I had already seen the Shroud in Turin some years ago and was never incredibly struck by subsequent pictures I had seen of it.

But the afternoon was a very wothwhile experience, largely because of the way the presentation was laid out. On first walking in we were confronted with the negative of the Shroud, which shows up much more clearly the scars and blood stains than the actual shroud does, and accompanied with this was scientific evidence of the shroud’s credibility, as well as quotes from the Scriptures that set the scene and turned the display into a meditation on the Passion. All the seminarians that came were visibly awed by what they saw and read. At the end of the display was the facsimile itself. I thought particularly poignant a piece of artwork which depicted the Cross, composed of the words of Psalm 22 (’All who see me mock at me,/ They make mouths at me, they wag their heads’).

From: Shroud of Turin Copy Displayed at Anglican Church « A Blogspotting Anglican Episcopalian

Plant images on Shroud of Turin at Missouri Botanical Gardens

Source: Plant life traces on Shroud of Turin draws local interest

For decades, scientists have debated the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

Two researchers were in St. Louis last week to present their findings on the shroud. The event was held at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Some 400 people attended.

Avinoam Danin, emeritus professor of botany at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has spent years examining images of plant life discovered on the shroud.

He also has discovered additional pieces of plant life on the cloth, which has provided additional evidence to support his theory that the shroud was used somewhere in the area of Jerusalem.

Dr. Petrus Soons, a native of the Netherlands and retired doctor, has used digital photos of the shroud to create three-dimensional holograms, which have provided new and unique views of the cloth.

While neither Soons nor Danin attempted to prove that the image of the man found on the shroud indeed was that of Christ, both agreed that their research provides additional insight into the history of the cloth.

Plant life traces on Shroud of Turin draws local interest « Shroud of Turin Blog

Rated Best New Shroud of Turin Website

Source: Best New Shroud of Turin Website

Be sure to check out this website, Shroud University. It is loaded with helpful resources including audio (and soon video) of the Ohio State University Shroud of Turin Conference  presentations and open discussion forums.

Shroud University is a division of The Shroud of Turin Education Project, inc. and builds upon its original mission of providing the research tools necessary for students to explore this profound mystery. Is the Shroud of Turin a 2000-year-old relic of Jesus Christ or is it merely a medieval fake? It is a question that rivals “The Great Debate.”

This entry was posted

Best New Shroud of Turin Website « Shroud of Turin Blog

Shroud of Turin Interest Linked to News

Interest in the Shroud of Turin in most cases is related to news about the Shroud. Here are the stats from Google Trends with identification of the flags and two other points:

A. Second face on the back of the shroud discovered (most interest)

B. Rogers’ paper that argues that the carbon dating sample was likely a repair

C. Shadow Shroud story on CBS (most news coverage)

D. Attention from the Winter Olympics in Turin

E. BBC documentary on the Shroud of Turin (little news, much interest)

F. Pope’s announcement that the shroud would be exhibited in 2010 (much news, little interest)

* 3rd Quarter if 2006, unknown story that generated no interest)

* Mid-August 2008, LA Times story about Jackson couple, minor news blip and very little interest.

Interest in the Shroud of Turin Linked to News « Shroud of Turin Blog

On the Ohio State University Shroud of Turin Conference

 

Long time shroud researcher Kevin E Moran has written a useful commentary on the Shroud of Turin Conference at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. I completely agree with his assessment and it was good to see the VP8 demonstrated and to learn more about it.

This conference was far superior to the 2005 Dallas meeting organized by a Machiavellian lawyer collecting signatures for sale! This was a true international meeting held to accomplish cooperation, exchange meaningful information and work with old colleagues and new friends. It was as the organizer Joe Marino named it “multifaceted” It was truly open to the public. There were people from Australia, Canada, Israel, Italy, and other countries as well as a video greeting from Bill Meachem in Hong Kong. Rex Morgan, from Australia, gave an excellent over view of Shroud research history and projected the need for future work. There were 6 from the original 1978 investigators who spent 5 days and nights working on the Shroud in Turin, some gave papers and all participated in a panel session with questions from the audience. There was a new report on work on sample fibers from the late Ray Rogers by Los Alamos Scientific Lab. Avinoam Danin, botanist from

Opinion: On the Ohio State University Shroud of Turin Conference « Shroud of Turin Blog

Scientist responds to Shroud of Turin story in the News and Observer

Dating the shroud - A scientist responds to the story in the News and Observer

T. V. Oommen writes in a letter published by the paper:

I am responding to the Aug. 29 article “Scientists debate shroud’s date.” As a scientist involved in the shroud’s study and research, and as a participant in the recent Ohio Shroud Conference where I made a presentation on “Shroud coins dating by image extraction,” I can emphatically say that there is plenty of evidence for the antiquity of the shroud as of first century origin.

There were several presentations on the erroneous dating of the shroud by the 1988 radiocarbon(C-14) dating. The area where the samples were taken was from a medieval patch with cotton, which appeared to blend perfectly with the linen shroud. If this is true, the main body of the shroud should show an ancient date. The theory that the entire shroud could show a more recent date because of the newer carbon generated during fiery events remains to be proven.

Some other scientists also propose similar views; for example, that powerful radiations from the resurrection event must have generated C-14. So another carbon dating of the shroud may not resolve the issue.

The coin identification I presented showed Pontius Pilate coins issued AD 30/31 placed on the eye area, which implies the shroud’s age is very close to that. Read more about it at www.ohioshroudconference.com.

T.V. Oommen

Raleigh

A Chemist's Perspective On The Shroud of Turin

There is a new book out by Ray Rogers.

Raymond N. Rogers was the head of the chemistry experiments for the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), the team of 24 researchers that performed the first ever in-depth scientific examination of the relic in 1978. He was a professional chemist for 52 years and spent 35 years as a research chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, until his retirement in 1988. Rogers shares his frank and often-unvarnished personal perspectives on his 30 year involvement in Shroud studies. He details his own research and backs it up with solid observations, chemical analysis and microscopy. He provides us with his own theory of the Shroud’s image formation and his own opinion on its authenticity. He discusses the role of religion and science and how each has impacted Shroud research. Most importantly, he discusses the possible future for the Shroud itself. Rogers’ unique perspective, straightforward style and in-depth knowledge will both inform and enlighten you. Includes 68 Color and B&W Illustrations.

Atheist Tribe Uses Selective Science Facts to Judge the Shroud of Turin

We can encounter a statement like this at nogod.tribe.net in a post Does science make belief in God obsoleter:

I do find amusement with the "Shroud of Turin", as it has been shown to be from a different time, and even if it were not...there were plenty of crucifixions done back then, in the same way, but...that silly sheet just has to be the "son of god's", even though the image is of a much older man, lol.
Pure absurdity.

This is utterly unscientific -- my experience is that most skeptics only select evidence that favors their argument. First of all it has NOT been shown to be from another time. Here are Two Science Quotes on the Shroud of Turin

One:

There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to many that the shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow, and so further research is certainly needed. Only by doing this will people be able to arrive at a coherent history of the shroud which takes into account and explains all of the available scientific and historical information.

• Christopher Ramsey, head of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit which participated in the 1988 Carbon 14 Dating of the Shroud. ( May 2008 )

Two:

[T]he [1988 carbon 14] age-dating process failed to recognize one of the first rules of analytical chemistry that any sample taken for characterization of an area or population must necessarily be representative of the whole. The part must be representative of the whole. Our analyses of the three thread samples taken from the Raes and C-14 sampling corner showed that this was not the case.

• Robert Villarreal, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) chemist who headed a team of nine scientists who at LANL examined material from the carbon 14 sampling region. ( August 2008 )

As for the comment that the shroud image is of a much older man, since when is a personal impression science. And as for it has to be "son of god," you win no point with the lower case - even grammatically I capitalize Atheist just as I would Christian), that is not so. We don't that, we can't know that, but there is room for inference. For more information on the carbon dating and history see: Shroud of Turin Fact Check

Ohio Shroud of Turin Conference Abstracts Now Available

From the Papers Page on the conference site:

Abstracts: Thirty-one abstracts are now available.

Publication: No later than December 31, 2008, papers will be published online on this conference website. Papers received before that date will be published as they become available.

Subject Matter: Subject matter included anything related to the scientific, historical or theological aspects of the Shroud of Turin. Preference was given to papers with new material, i.e., that has not been presented at a conference or published previously elsewhere.

Length: Papers were be 30 minutes maximum, except those designated as “Special Presentations,” which may have been 1-hour long.

Shroud Science Group International Conference

Two Science Quotes on the Shroud of Turin

 One:

There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to many that the shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow, and so further research is certainly needed. Only by doing this will people be able to arrive at a coherent history of the shroud which takes into account and explains all of the available scientific and historical information.

• Christopher Ramsey, head of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit which participated in the 1988 Carbon 14 Dating of the Shroud. ( May 2008 )

Two:

[T]he [1988 carbon 14] age-dating process failed to recognize one of the first rules of analytical chemistry that any sample taken for characterization of an area or population must necessarily be representative of the whole. The part must be representative of the whole. Our analyses of the three thread samples taken from the Raes and C-14 sampling corner showed that this was not the case.

• Robert Villarreal, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) chemist who headed a team of nine scientists who at LANL examined material from the carbon 14 sampling region. ( August 2008 )

For more information see: Shroud of Turin Fact Check

Team of scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory confirm the carbon 14 dating of the Shroud of Turin was invalid.

Using some of the most advanced analytical equipment available, a team of nine scientists at the famed Los Alamos National Laboratory confirmed that the material used for radiocarbon dating of the shroud in 1988 was not part of the shroud's fabric. Previously, micro-chemical tests had demonstrated that the cloth is at least twice as old as the medieval date determined by the now discredited carbon 14 tests. This gives new life to historical and forensic arguments that suggest that the shroud might be the burial cloth of Jesus.

PRESS RELEASE

COLUMBUS, Ohio, August 15 -- In his presentation today at The Ohio State University's Blackwell Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) chemist, Robert Villarreal, disclosed startling new findings proving that the sample of material used in 1988 to Carbon-14 (C-14) date the Shroud of Turin, which categorized the cloth as a medieval fake, could not have been from the original linen cloth because it was cotton. According to Villarreal, who lead the LANL team working on the project, thread samples they examined from directly adjacent to the C-14 sampling area were "definitely not linen" and, instead, matched cotton. Villarreal pointed out that "the [1988] age-dating process failed to recognize one of the first rules of analytical chemistry that any sample taken for characterization of an area or population must necessarily be representative of the whole. The part must be representative of the whole. Our analyses of the three thread samples taken from the Raes and C-14 sampling corner showed that this was not the case." Villarreal also revealed that, during testing, one of the threads came apart in the middle forming two separate pieces. A surface resin, that may have been holding the two pieces together, fell off and was analyzed. Surprisingly, the two ends of the thread had different chemical compositions, lending credence to the theory that the threads were spliced together during a repair.

LANL's work confirms the research published in Thermochimica Acta (Jan. 2005) by the late Raymond Rogers, a chemist who had studied actual C-14 samples and concluded the sample was not part of the original cloth possibly due to the area having been repaired. This hypothesis was presented by M. Sue Benford and Joseph G. Marino in Orvieto, Italy in 2000. Benford and Marino proposed that a 16th Century patch of cotton/linen material was skillfully spliced into the 1st Century original Shroud cloth in the region ultimately used for dating. The intermixed threads combined to give the dates found by the labs ranging between 1260 and 1390 AD. Benford and Marino contend that this expert repair was necessary to disguise an unauthorized relic taken from the corner of the cloth. A paper presented today at the conference by Benford and Marino, and to be published in the July/August issue of the international journal Chemistry Today, provided additional corroborating evidence for the repair theory.

Blogging from Ohio State University at the Shroud of Turin Conference.

Clueless on the Shroud of Turin (Science Musings Blog)

Chet writes in Science Musing Blog:

In the same issue of the Irish Times, the weekly science columnist, Dr. William Reville, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Public Awareness of Science Officer at University College Cork, weighed in on the Shroud of Turin: Is the linen cloth with an image of the crucified Christ at Turin's cathedral the authentic burial cloth of Jesus or a medieval forgery? Reville ostensibly adopts an open-minded attitude, but his credulity is breathtaking. He recommends reading Is the Turin Shroud a Fake? by Ian Wilson and Barrie Schwortz, one of countless book supporting the Shroud cult, without directing his readers to a more skeptical source. I would have thought the issue was pretty much settled by the 1988 radiometric tests reported in Nature, but it's not in the cards that any scientific evidence -- or application of Ockham's Razor -- will dissuade true believers.

I am surprised how little the author knows about the literature. The 1998 tests have been shown to be quite worthless. The material that was tested has been shown to be chemically unlike the rest of the shroud. For instance . . . 

1. The samples contained vanillin in significant quantities (about 37%) whereas the rest of the shroud does not. In fact, a Philip Ball writing in Nature in 2005 acknowledged, this demonstrates that the shroud is at least twice as old as the radiometric tests indicate. (I guess it's not in the cards that any scientific evidence -- or application of Ockham's Razor -- will dissuade true skeptics).
2. Alan Adler at Western Connecticut State University found large amounts of aluminum in yarn segments from the radiocarbon sample, up to 2%, by energy-dispersive x-ray analysis. Why aluminum? That was an important question because it is not found elsewhere on the Shroud. (alum is likely the culprit. it is a mordant used in dying).
3. The radiocarbon lab at the University of Arizona conducted eight tests. But there was a wide variance in the computed dates and so the team in Arizona combined results to produce four results thus eliminating the more outlying dates (reportedly they did so at the request of the British Museum, which was overseeing the tests). Even then, according to Remi Van Haelst, a retired industrial chemist in Belgium, the results failed to meet minimum statistical standards (chi-squared tests).  Why the wide variance in the dates? Was it because of testing errors? Or was it because the sample was not sufficiently homogeneous? The latter seems very likely now, and the statistical anomaly indicates something very suspicious about the samples.
4. Bryan Walsh, a statistician, examined Van Haelst’s analysis and further studied the measurements. He concluded that the divided samples used in multiple tests contained different levels of the C14 isotope. The overall cut sample was non-homogeneous and thus of questionable validity. Walsh found a significant relationship between the measured age of various sub-samples and their distance from the edge of the cloth. Though Walsh did not suggest invisible reweaving, it is consistent with his findings.
5. Giovanni Riggi, the person who actually cut the carbon 14 sample from the Shroud stated, "I was authorized to cut approximately 8 square centimetres of cloth from the Shroud…This was then reduced to about 7 cm because fibres of other origins had become mixed up with the original fabric …" (emphasis mine)
6. Giorgio Tessiore, who documented the sampling, wrote:  “…1 cm of the new sample had to be discarded because of the presence of different color threads.” (emphasis mine)
7. Edward (Teddy) Hall, head of the Oxford radiocarbon dating laboratory, had noticed fibers that looked out of place. A laboratory in Derbyshire concluded that the rogue fibers were cotton of “a fine, dark yellow strand.”  Derbyshire's Peter South wrote: “It may have been used for repairs at some time in the past…”

We certainly don't know how old the cloth is. Certainly the 1988 tests do not tell us.

Chet concludes:

If Dr. Reville takes at face value that a man can rise from the dead and pass through walls, then why not an authentic Shroud of Turin or a six-day creation. If you believe one miracle, then why not all?

And this is from someone claiming to be writing about science? First of all, the resurrection is a statement based on faith. The interpretation in Christianity varies from true miracle to spiritual representation. It is not based on scientific claims of any kind. It is recognized to be "scientifically" impossible.

The evidence for the age of the universe, the earth as well as the evolution of species is based on good science. Granted, some Christians do not accept it. I do. But the age of the shroud is not based on good science.

Science Musings Blog

Shroud of Turin Conference at Ohio State University

 

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Latina A. D. Rockhold

(614) 688-3310

rockhold.14@osu.edu

New Data at International Shroud of Turin Conference Precedes Exhibition in Turin

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 24 — An international conference on the Shroud of Turin to be held at The Ohio State University will reveal new information regarding the controversial 1988 Carbon-14 (C-14) dating of the cloth believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. The 1988 test gave the putative results at A.D. 1260–1390, but they were immediately questioned by many scientists as being inconsistent with other accumulated data on the Shroud. The Vatican recently announced that the Shroud will be exhibited in Turin in the spring of 2010, when millions are expected to see it. New evidence will be presented at the conference summarizing recent work by seven independent scientists of a world-renowned American research facility on Shroud samples adjacent to ones used in the 1988 dating. The research indicates that the area from which the C-14 samples were taken is chemically different from the main part of the Shroud, confirming research published in 2005 by a scientist who had studied actual C-14 samples. Due to the sensitive nature of the research and of the work of the research facility, the speaker and paper will only be announced at the conference.

“The Shroud of Turin:  Perspectives on a Multifaceted Enigma” will be held Aug. 14–17, 2008, at The Blackwell Hotel, 2110 Tuttle Park Place, on the grounds of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  The conference, which is open to the public, is being organized by the Shroud Science Internet Group, composed of about 100 scientists, scholars, and researchers from around the world.

The conference will also include presentations from five members of The Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), which had studied the most intensely-studied artifact in human history for five days in 1978. None of the data collected by the group suggested the Shroud could be a forgery.  If the 1988 C-14 test results were accurate, the Shroud could not be the actual burial cloth of Jesus.

However, in 2005, a member of STURP, the late Raymond Rogers, who was given access to leftover samples from the 1988 testing, authored a paper published in Thermochimica Acta in which he presented evidence that the sample used in the testing was not part of the original cloth possibly due to the area having been repaired.  Rogers believed his evidence invalidated the C-14 test.  While some researchers have challenged Rogers findings, there have been no rebuttals in peer-reviewed scientific literature.  Several new papers are being presented at the conference that will provide corroborating evidence for the repair theory, including two by M. Sue Benford (43016) and Joseph Marino (43016) whose paper at an international conference in Orvieto, Italy, in August 2000 prompted Rogers to undertake the research that led to his 2005 paper. One of the two papers by Benford and Marino will be published in Chemistry Today shortly after the conference.

Furthermore, speakers will present the findings of scientific analysis of dusts and particles collected during the 1988 C-14 testing.   In addition, there will be a paper by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Department of Evolution, Systematics, and Ecology Professor of Botany, Avinoam Danin, Ph.D., who presented evidence at the 16^th International Botanical Congress in St. Louis in 1999 that suggested that the C-14 test in 1988 had been invalid.  Dr. Danin, whose research places the Shroud's geographical origin in the Middle East. will present new botanical evidence that raises new questions about the Shroud's image-formation process.

For more information regarding the conference, which commemorates the 30^th anniversary of the 1978 STURP study and the 20^th anniversary of the C-14 dating of the Shroud, or to register, visit ohioshroudconference.com. Registration is also available by visiting ced.osu.edu/CED_conference.html or calling the Office of Continuing Education at (614) 292-8571.

The Department of Conference Management in The Ohio State University Office of Continuing

Education (CEd) specializes in providing meeting and conference management services — from pre-conference concept to post-conference follow-up — on a cost-effective basis to the university community as well as to private and public businesses and associations. For more information on CEd’s Conference Management services, visit ced.osu.edu and click on “Conference Management,” or contact Sarah Sieling in the Office of Continuing Education at (614) 292-8571.

###

The Buffalo News: Camp Inquiry encourages children's skeptical side

The problem is that Joe Nickell, mentioned here, has no comprehension of the scientific method. From an obviously spoon fed story in the Buffalo News:

Twenty-seven campers spent the past week following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, digging up fossils and learning how to face moral dilemmas.

Paranormal and forensic investigator Joseph Nickell, of Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel fame, paid a visit Wednesday morning to explain away alien sightings, Bigfoot, crop circles and the Shroud of Turin.

“The best way to find the truth in such matters is the scientific method,” said Nickell, who urged kids to respond to claims, myths and urban legends by demanding proof.

Joe Nickell is not a scientist. That is not a criticism. He has a PhD in literature from the University of Kentucky and he is a skilled writer. According to Nickell, not being a scientist is advantageous as researcher or investigator.

In an article entitled, “An Interview With Joe Nickell,” Eric Krieg of the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, describes Nickell (using Nickell's own words) as an “investigator” and formerly an “undercover detective, teacher, draft dodger, river boat manager, carnival promoter, magician and spokesperson.” 

“Joe [Nickell] impressed on me the difference between being a scientist and an investigator,” Kreig continued.  “Joe seems to have no significant credentials . . .  Joe [Nickell] remarks that a scientist tends to approach an investigation from the narrow view of his own specialty - where as a ‘jack of all trades’ would come up with more avenues of investigation.”

Joe Nickell is a skeptic when it comes to the Shroud of Turin. There is no question about that. Nor is that a criticism. What needs to be questioned, however, are his methods, those things he writes as "facts" and the conclusions he draws.

The aim of the thoughtful skeptical inquirer is not to achieve this or that outcome. Rather the aim of the true and honest skeptical inquirer is an open mind, careful analysis and proper use of sources.

Everyone should read a recent Joe Nickell's article "Claims of Invalid “Shroud” Radiocarbon Date Cut from Whole Cloth" and the criticisms of this article that follow. Everyone should judge for himself or herself.

Poisoning the Well

Camp Inquiry encourages children's skeptical side : City & Region : The Buffalo News

The Buffalo News: Camp Inquiry encourages children's skeptical side

The problem is that Joe Nickell, mentioned here, has no comprehension of the scientific method. From an obviously spoon fed story in the Buffalo News:

Twenty-seven campers spent the past week following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, digging up fossils and learning how to face moral dilemmas.

Paranormal and forensic investigator Joseph Nickell, of Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel fame, paid a visit Wednesday morning to explain away alien sightings, Bigfoot, crop circles and the Shroud of Turin.

“The best way to find the truth in such matters is the scientific method,” said Nickell, who urged kids to respond to claims, myths and urban legends by demanding proof.

Joe Nickell is not a scientist. That is not a criticism. He has a PhD in literature from the University of Kentucky and he is a skilled writer. According to Nickell, not being a scientist is advantageous as researcher or investigator.

In an article entitled, “An Interview With Joe Nickell,” Eric Krieg of the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, describes Nickell (using Nickell's own words) as an “investigator” and formerly an “undercover detective, teacher, draft dodger, river boat manager, carnival promoter, magician and spokesperson.” 

“Joe [Nickell] impressed on me the difference between being a scientist and an investigator,” Kreig continued.  “Joe seems to have no significant credentials . . .  Joe [Nickell] remarks that a scientist tends to approach an investigation from the narrow view of his own specialty - where as a ‘jack of all trades’ would come up with more avenues of investigation.”

Joe Nickell is a skeptic when it comes to the Shroud of Turin. There is no question about that. Nor is that a criticism. What needs to be questioned, however, are his methods, those things he writes as "facts" and the conclusions he draws.

The aim of the thoughtful skeptical inquirer is not to achieve this or that outcome. Rather the aim of the true and honest skeptical inquirer is an open mind, careful analysis and proper use of sources.

Everyone should read a recent Joe Nickell's article "Claims of Invalid “Shroud” Radiocarbon Date Cut from Whole Cloth" and the criticisms of this article that follow. Everyone should judge for himself or herself.

Poisoning the Well

Camp Inquiry encourages children's skeptical side : City & Region : The Buffalo News

Pope Apologizes for Clerical Sexual Abuse

SYDNEY (Catholic Online) - His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI today delivered a heartfelt apology to the victims of sexual abuse by clergy in Australia.

Departing from his official homily, the Holy Father said: “Indeed, I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured, and I assure them that as their Pastor, I too share in their suffering.”
The apology was delivered during a special service at St Mary’s Cathedral – the Dedication of a new altar before seminarians and other young religious people.

The Pope consecrated (blessed) the new white marble altar, featuring an image of the body of Jesus Christ, based on the sacred Shroud of Turin. As he addressed the full cathedral and forecourt, he used the new altar to highlight their role.

World Youth Day 2008 - Catholic Online

Examining the Shroud on GodTube

WATCH: The Shroud of Turin, the piece of cloth that is alleged to be the burial garment of Christ, is one of the most widely studied relics in the entire world. Scientists from 67 different academic studies ...

 

Why the face of the Shroud of Turin?

Perceptively, Raul Nidoy from Makati City, Philippines writes in his blog:

When we see the face of Christ, why should we emphasize the particular face of Christ in the Shroud of Turin and not just a more comprehensive searching for his face, his personality, his expressions, his look, the self shining out through his words?

The answer lies in to the reply to the question on why three of the universal sacraments have a symbolic force limited to the Mediterranean region: olive oil, bread, wine.

Christ chose mediterranean symbolism. Why? Ratzinger reasoned out in his book Spirit of the Liturgy: God's incarnation binds us to the history of a particular place. It does not mean doing as we please, a typical tendency of those who want to invent a new liturgy, or new sacraments. No. "The elements become sacraments through connection with the unique history of God in relation to man in Jesus Christ."

See Benedict the Wise: Why the face of the Shroud of Turin?

Updated Shroud of Turin Conference Schedule, Ohio State University

Conference schedule as of 4 July 2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

5:00-7:00 p.m. On-site registration

6:45-7:00 Opening remarks

7:00-8:30 Opening address: The Shroud: An Eternal Challenge by Rex Morgan, Shroud Science Group member

8:30-8:45 Break

8:45-9:00 A Tribute to STURP by Barrie Schwortz, STURP documenting photographer and Shroud Science Group member

9:00-10:00 Informal gathering in Ballroom (Refreshments provided)

Friday, August 15, 2008

7:00-9:00 a.m. On-site registration

8:00-9:30 Breakfast (provided by Hotel)

8:30-8:45 Opening remarks

8:45-9:15 The STURP Experience by Thomas D’Muhala, former President of STURP

9:15-9:45 The Sudarium of Oviedo: A Study of Fiber Structures by Raymond Rogers, STURP member and Shroud Science Group member, read by Joanna Emery.

9:45-10:15 VP-8 Shroud Image Analysis, Impact and History by Peter Schumacher

10:15-10:45 My White Linen White Paper by Kenneth Stevenson, STURP member and Shroud Science Group member

10:45-11:00 Visibility of the Shroud Image: An Optical Physicist’s Perspective by John Dee German, STURP member

11:00-11:30 The Spectroscopy of Various Candidate Processes Associated with Image Formation and Features of the Shroud of Turin

Redux (what we might have seen if we did it right) by Joseph Accetta, STURP member

11:45-12:00 Question and Answer session with STURP members

12:00-1:30 Lunch (provided by Hotel)

1:30-2:00 Digital Image Analysis of the Shroud of Turin

: An Ongoing Investigation by Raymond J. Schneider, Shroud Science Group member

2:00-2:30 A Physical Hypothesis on the Origin of the Body Image embedded into the Turin Shroud by Paolo Di Lazzaro

2:30-3:00 Shroud Coins Dating By Image Extraction by T.V. Oommen

3:00-3:30 Revisiting The Right Eye Image: What is it? By Dr. Alan and Mary Whanger, Shroud Science Group members

3:30-4:00 Aspects of The Shroud in Botany and Related Art By Dr. Alan and Mary Whanger, Shroud Science Group members

4:00-4:22 Body Image Formation Hypotheses Based on Corona Discharge: Discussion by Giulio Fanti, Shroud Science Group Member

4:23-4:45 Resolution of images obtained without an acquisition system using MTF by Giulio Fanti, Shroud Science Group member and Roberto Basso

4:46-5:08 Statistical analysis of dusts taken from different areas of the Turin Shroud

by Giulio Fanti, Shroud Science Group member and Roberto Basso

5:09-5:29 Scourge bloodstains on the  Turin Shroud: an evidence for different instruments used by Barbara Faccini, Shroud Science Group member, read by Giulio Fanti

5:30-6:00 Questions and Answers--afternoon speakers

6:00-8:00 Dinner (not provided by hotel)

8:00-9:00 Informal presentation: History of the Holy Grail by Daniel C. Scavone

9:00-10:00 Judging of Student Posters

Saturday August 16, 2008

8:00-9:30 a.m. Breakfast (provided by Hotel)

8:30-8:45 Opening remarks

8:45-9:15 What Went Wrong with the Shroud's Radiocarbon Date?  Setting it all in context by Paul Maloney, Shroud Science Group Member

9:15-9:45 Overview of and New Findings for Historical and Scientific Evidence Pertaining to Possible “Invisible Mending” of the C-14 area of the Turin Shroud by Joseph G. Marino, Shroud Science Group member and M. Sue Benford

9:45-10:15 Surface chemical analysis of the Shroud of  Turin identifies discrepancies in Radiocarbon Dating Region by M. Sue Benford and Joseph G. Marino, Shroud Science Group member

10:15-10:45 SPECIAL PRESENTATION TO BE ANNOUNCED

10:45-11:15 SEM-EDXA Analysis of Red Particles Removed from the Underside of the Turin Shroud in 1988 by Parr RL, Reguly B, MacKenzie A, Merriwether DA, Benford MS, Baraldi P, and Fanti G

11:15-11:45 Questions and Answers--morning speakers

11:45-1:15 Lunch (provided by Hotel)

1:15-1:45 Neutron Radiation Effects on Linen Fibers and Consequences for a Radiocarbon Dating by Francesco Barbesino & Mario Moroni, read by Giulio Fanti

1:45-2:15 A Global Forensic Analysis of the Elements of the Shroud of Turin: Compatibility Between the Evidences of Vitality and the Absence of Signs of Death on the Cloth by Dr. Miguel Lorente

2:15-2:45 The death of the Shroud Man: an improved review by Barbara Faccini, Shroud Science Group member, read by Giulio Fanti

2:45-3:15 The Shroud of Turin , The Holographic Experience by Petrus Soons

3:15-3:45 Botany of the Shroud of Turin by Avinoam Danin

3:45-4:15 Ancient Edessa and the Shroud: History Concealed by the Discipline of the Secret by Jack Markwardt

4:15-4:45 On Besancon and Other Plausible Theories for the Shroud During the Missing 150 Years, 1204 to 1355 by Daniel C. Scavone, Shroud Science Group member

4:45-5:10 Was Sixth-Century Desertification a Factor in the Transfer of Relics from Palestine by Diana Fulbright, Shroud Science Group member

5:10-5:30 A Note on “the Servant of Peter” by Diana Fulbright, Shroud Science Group member

5:30-6:00 Questions and answers--afternoon speakers

6:00-8:00 Dinner (provided by Hotel)

8:00-10:00 GENERAL OPEN FORUM: Twenty Years After – Where Do We Stand with the Carbon dating? moderated by Barrie Schwortz, Shroud of Turin Research Project Documenting Photographer and Shroud Science Group member

SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2008

8:00-9:30 a.m. Breakfast (provided by Hotel)

8:30-9:00 Jesus Christ, the Man of the Shroud, and Bilirubin by Carlo Goldoni, read by Roberto Basso

9:00-9:30 Advancing the Shroud into the 21^st Century: Reaching the next generation by Russ Breault, Shroud Science Group member

9:30-10:00 Focus Projects for Student Involvement in Researching the Scientific Properties of the Shroud of  Turin by Raymond J. Schneider, Shroud Science Group member

10:00-11:00 GENERAL OPEN FORUM: The 2002 “Restoration” – its Impact and Prospects for Future Testing (and miscellaneous topics) moderated by Barrie Schwortz, Shroud of Turin Research Project Documenting Photographer and Shroud Science Group member

11:00-11:30 The Tangible Emmanuel: How the Scriptures Shed Light on the Meaning and Presence of the Shroud of Turin by Chris Knabenshue

11:30 Closing remarks; End of Conference

Fabric Of Time - 2007 5 of 6 - Shroud of Turin

 

 

Shroud of Turin - Fabric of Time -2007
Holographic and forensic proofs.
Aba Joshua.
The greatest SHAMAN and the highest MAGUS

Shroud of Turin - Fabric Of Time - 2007 5 of 6 | Video Digs

wunderkammer: The Shroud of Turin

This is an interesting, well written posting:

. . . Various tests have been performed on the shroud, yet the debates about its origin continue. Radiocarbon dating in 1988 by three independent teams of scientists yielded results published in Nature indicating that the shroud was made during the Middle Ages, approximately 1300 years after Jesus lived. Follow-up analysis published in 2005, however, indicated that the sample dated by the teams was taken from an area of the shroud that was not a part of the original cloth. This analysis itself is questioned by skeptics such as Joe Nickell, who reason that the conclusions of the author, Raymond Rogers, result from "starting with the desired conclusion and working backward to the evidence". Former Nature editor Philip Ball has said that the idea that Rogers steered his study to a preconceived conclusion is "unfair" and Rogers "has a history of respectable work". As of 2005, there is no universally accepted carbon dating result for the shroud in the scientific literature. . .

Read the entire posting.

Examining the Shroud of Turin at Catholic Board

John Iannone was interviewed on Catholic Answers LIVE radio on June 12, 2008. He is the author of The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence (Alba House, 1998), a book that examines the famous “Shroud of Turin,” which some claim to be the actual ancient burial cloth of Jesus. In this interview, Iannone discusses the remarkable, unexplainable, and mysterious qualities scientists have discovered in their multiple examinations of the Shroud. Is the Shroud a medieval hoax - a unique forgery - or might it possibly be the actual cloth that enshrouded Jesus when he was buried in the garden tomb nearly two-thousand years ago? You’ll be fascinated by what you discover in this unique episode of Catholic Answers LIVE

Link to broadcast. Examining the Shroud of Turin at CatholicBoard - Knowing, Loving, and Living the Faith

Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave On view at MOCA Grand Avenue through September 22, 2008

Edward Goldman is an art critic and the host of Art Talk, a program on art and culture for NPR affiliate KCRW 89.9 FM. He writes:

Marlene Dumas' powerful and eloquent art repudiates premature statements made by some art authorities about the demise of painting as the primary medium of artistic expression in the 21st century. As long as we are able to evoke the image of the Shroud of Turin and the Veil of Sainte Veronique, painting will remain with us.

Is he saying that Shroud of Turin is a painting? It seems so. But we can't be certain.

Turin Shroud: A Challenge to Muslims' Belief? - IslamonLine.net - Ask The Scholar

Someone wrote on a Muslim online forum:

Dear respected scholar, as-salamu `alaykum!

I've got a question pertaining to the `aqidah (faith).

Are there some fatwas by modern Muslim scholars about the famous Turin Shroud (Shroud of Christ) and the results of recent researches made over it in Russia by FSB (Russian state security service)?

What is being published about it sounds like a kind of challenge to the Islamic view over the life of `Isa (Jesus; peace be upon him), who according to the Qur'an was not crucified.

Or are there different views over this issue among the Muslim scholars?
In any case, what is your view over the Turin Shroud?

There are many Christian missionaries in our Central Asian states; they are very active and often successful, and they use different ways of propaganda.

Therefore, we, Kazakhstani Muslims, really need full information over such issues.

Jazakum Allahu khayran.

And the answer was:

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Thank you for your question, and we implore Allah to guide all the members of the human family to the best, both in this world and in the hereafter.

Regarding the issue you raised in your question, it does not pose any challenge to Muslims' belief: Muslims have no doubts over the truthfulness and authenticity of the Qur'an. The Qur'an is clear that Jesus was neither killed nor crucified, and that is the belief of every Muslim.

In response to your question, Muhammad M. Abu Layla, professor of Islamic studies and comparative religions, Al-Azhar University, illustrated,

Muslims are dominated by their beliefs, and they try hard to abide by it. There is no compromise at all with Muslims concerning Jesus (known in Arabic as: `Isa), (They slew him [Jesus] not nor did they crucify him) (An-Nisaa' 4:157).

Muslims believe that Jesus was ascended to Allah; but no one can tell but Allah how that happened.
Muslims do not believe in the crucifixion of Jesus. The shroud cannot be taken as a proof at all that Jesus was killed or buried. Reading the accounts given by the evangelists, i.e. the writers of the four gospels, cannot provide solid evidence that Jesus was crucified and buried and came up from the tomb three days after his burial. The four accounts are confusing.
This does not mean at all to undermine other people's faith, but respecting other people's feelings should not prevent us from telling the truth or examining their evidences.

Muslims do not believe in the Shroud ascribed to Jesus or anything similar to it. They should abide by what the Qur'an told on the end of Jesus on Earth. Whatever is presented to them, as a scholar and specialist in Christianity, I do not agree that the shroud is a challenge to Muslims.
Muslims do not wait for something to be discovered to strengthen their faith in Jesus as an infallible prophet of Allah.

Interesting. Read Turin Shroud: A Challenge to Muslims' Belief? - IslamonLine.net - Ask The Scholar

El Shaddai: The Passion of The Christ

This is an interesting article, and the Shroud of Turin is mentioned.

Anne Catherine Emmerich was an Augustinian nun who was born 8 September 1774 at Flamsche, in the Diocese of Münster, in Germany and who died at Dulmen on 9 February 1824. During her life she experienced the mystical phenomenon of the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, which after a study ordered by her bishop were judged by a panel of physicians and clergy to be authentic. In addition she had mystical visions, the content of which came to be written down by Clemens Brentano, a man who served as her secretary in this regard. Among the most famous of her writings is the The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1892, well after her death, her Cause for Beatification was introduced by the bishop of Münster. She subsequently attained to the title of Venerable, indicating Rome's recognition that she lived a life of heroic virtue. However, in 1928 Rome suspended the Cause of Beatification when it was suspected that Brentano fabricated material attributed to her. The Holy See has since permitted the Cause to be re-opened on the sole issue of her life, without reference to the possibly doctored writings. On 2 July 2003 a decree of a miracle was promulgated by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, opening the way for her Beatification (L'Osservatore Romano N. 29, 16 July 2003, 2).

Being an Anglican & Episcopalian, I'm not well informed on this subject and somewhat skeptical. Nonetheless, I found the post interesting and I'm glad I read it. I recommend it.

bruno: The REAL Da Vinci Code

It was  Michelangelo. Duh!

Leonardo is even suspected of having fabricated the famous Shroud of Turin [albeit on ancient Palestinian cotton] using his own face as the face of Christ crucified and risen from the dead.

But is this blasphemy? We must give him the benefit of the doubt for a moment to get deeper below the surface and reveal his own radical theology.

Okay, it is an interesting article. But it become problematic when we read about this next famous work.

This gets good!

Curiously, Leonardo appears in the role of God himself - further emphasising the inter-connection and identification of Divinity with Humanity.

Even more astonishing still is the silhouette, the shape created by God and the host of angels...

Da Vinci was perhaps the world's foremost expert in human anatomy based on a life-long study of autopsies.

Only problem is Michelangelo painted God Creates Adam. But he did not create the Shroud and neither did Leonardo. See bruno: The REAL Da Vinci Code Oh well!

The Custodian - Journal - TANATA.squarespace.com

Interesting poem:

The argument they made
Is they know prophecy.
They’ve known; they’ve been expecting
The cries of heresy.

Read The Custodian - Journal - TANATA.squarespace.com

Fizzystuff mentions the Shroud of Turin

How sure are you that Jesus rose from the dead?

There is the Shroud of Turin, for one, I am sure you like this evidence. Other than that, there are also the numerous believers who have lived and died for the faith as martyrs. Surely they would not have died for nothing?

The Shroud of Turin is interesting, yes, but we have had many cases of hoaxes before. If the shroud was so strong an evidence, why is it still so under-publicized? About the martyrs, I see a paradox. If I followed in the footsteps of saints and martyrs, I would add to their number, and maybe, just maybe in future, I would be cited among those special few! They died because they believed that the faith of those who went before them was true, who in turn believed that those who went before them had the true faith, who in turn... who in turn believed that Jesus was the way. Surely one man would not have died for nothing? Yet so many people die for nothing in the world today.

Read the entire posting at: For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.

Of course, I generally give the shroud a bit more significance.

Monkey Breath: Shroud of Turin, Forgery; Jesus Tortilla, Authentic

This is at least funny:

Abilene, TX - The infamous relic said to bare the image of Jesus Christ, The Shroud of Turin was finally and officially exposed as a hoax yesterday. News of the revelation shocked many believers.
“It’s really disheartening,” noted Roy Baker, a lifelong Catholic. “…to find out that something like that is just a fake.”

Read on at Monkey Breath: Shroud of Turin, Forgery; Jesus Tortilla, Authentic

STLtoday - Shroud of Turin scholars will speak at Botanical Garden

One man who has challenged the radiocarbon dating is Avinoam Danin, a professor of botany at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has spent decades examining images of plant remains on the shroud. Danin has said the shroud was buried in the vicinity of Jerusalem — not Europe, as had previously been thought — during the months of March or April.

Danin and Petrus Soons, a retired medical doctor who has used digitized photos of the shroud to create three-dimensional holograms, will give a free double lecture at the Missouri Botanical Garden on Monday, Aug. 18, at 5:30 p.m.

. . .

Christopher Ramsey, director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit in England, said on the lab's website that scientists there would take another look at the shroud. Jackson's theory is that a fire in France in the 16th century scorched the shroud and altered the radiocarbon date by introducing elevated levels of carbon monoxide to the cloth.

"There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to many that the shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow and so further research is certainly needed," Ramsey wrote on the Oxford lab's website.

STLtoday - Shroud of Turin scholars will speak at Botanical Garden

Catholic Board: Examining the Shroud of Turin

 

According to Examining the Shroud of Turin at CatholicBoard - Knowing, Loving, and Living the Faith: On June 12, 2008, John Iannone was interviewed on Catholic Answers LIVE radio. He is the author of The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence (Alba House, 1998), a book that examines the famous “Shroud of Turin,” which some claim to be the actual ancient burial cloth of Jesus. In this interview, Iannone discusses the remarkable, unexplainable, and mysterious qualities scientists have discovered in their multiple examinations of the Shroud. Is the Shroud a medieval hoax - a unique forgery - or might it possibly be the actual cloth that enshrouded Jesus when he was buried in the garden tomb nearly two-thousand years ago? You’ll be fascinated by what you discover in this unique episode of Catholic Answers LIVE!

C. S. Lewis and the Shroud of Turin

Here is an interesting reference to the Shroud of Turin in Harper One's C. S. Lewis Blog:

He continued to write over the years, discussing such topics as the Abominable Snowman, Holst’s Planets, George MacDonald’s poetry, and the impostrous Mrs. Hooker who was passing herself off as the “wife of C. S. Lewis.” He told her of such things as the death of his beloved friend Charles Williams, his ascension to the newly-created Professorship at Cambridge, and his marriage to the dying Joy Davidman. She in turn sent him news of her health and her planned projects – and copies of many of her own published and unpublished works, in which he never failed to find some delight. She also gave him a photograph of the Shroud of Turin – which he treasured, and kept on his bedroom wall for the rest of his life.

One cannot, of course, assume that Lewis thought the Shroud authentic. The reference is nonetheless interesting.

2007 10 07: VATICAN PAPER SET TO CLEAR KNIGHTS TEMPLAR « troy space

 

The mysteries of the Order of the Knights Templar could soon be laid bare after the Vatican announced the release of a crucial document which has not been seen for almost 700 years

2007 10 07: VATICAN PAPER SET TO CLEAR KNIGHTS TEMPLAR « troy space

Ohio Shroud of Turin Conference Blog: Latest updated tentative conference schedule

PLEASE NOTE THE CONFERENCE IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. IT IS NOT FREE

Thursday, August 14, 2008

5-7 p.m. On-site registration

6:45-7 Opening remarks

7:00-8:30 Opening address: The Shroud: An Eternal Challenge by Rex Morgan, Shroud Science Group member

8:30-8:45 Break

8:45-9:00 A Tribute to STURP by Barrie Schwortz, STURP documenting photographer and Shroud Science Group member

9:00-10:00 Informal gathering in Ballroom

Friday, August 15, 2008

7:00-9:00 a.m. On-site registration

8:00-9:30 Breakfast

8:30-8:45 Opening remarks

8:45-9:15 The STURP Experience by Tom D’Muhala, former President of STURP

9:15-9:45 The Sudarium of Oviedo: A Study of Fiber Structures by Ray Rogers, STURP member and Shroud Science Group member, read by Joanna Emery.

9:45-10:15 VP-8 Shroud Image Analysis, Impact and History by Peter Schumacher

10:15-10:45 My White Linen White Paper by Kenneth Stevenson, STURP member and Shroud Science Group member

10:45-11:00 Visibility of the Shroud Image: An Optical Physicist’s Perspective by John Dee German, STURP member

11:00-11:30 The Spectroscopy of Various Candidate Processes Associated with Image Formation and Features of the Shroud of

Turin

Redux (what we might have seen if we did it right) by Joseph Accetta, STURP member

11:45-12:00 Question/Answer session with STURP members

12:00-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:00 Digital Image Analysis of the Shroud of

Turin

: An Ongoing Investigation by Ray Schneider, Shroud Science Group member

2:00-2:30 A Physical Hypothesis on the Origin of the Body Image embedded into the

Turin

Shroud by Paolo Di Lazzaro

2:30-3:00 Shroud Coins Dating By Image Extraction by T.V. Oommen

3:00-3:30 Revisiting The Right Eye Image: What is it? By Alan and Mary Whanger, Shroud Science Group members

3:30-4:00 Aspects of The Shroud in Botany and Related Art By Alan and Mary Whanger, Shroud Science Group members

4:00-4:22 Body Image Formation Hypotheses Based on Corona Discharge: Discussion by Giulio Fanti, Shroud Science Group Member

4:23-4:45 Resolution of images obtained without an acquisition system using MTF by Giulio Fanti, Shroud Science Group member and Roberto Basso

4:46-5:08 Statistical analysis of dusts taken from different areas of the

Turin

Shroud

by Giulio Fanti, Shroud Science Group member and Roberto Basso

5:09-5:29 Scourge bloodstains on the

Turin

Shroud: an evidence for different instruments used by Barbara Faccini, Shroud Science Group member, read by Giulio Fanti

5:30-6:00 Questions for afternoon speakers

6:00-8:00 Dinner (not provided by hotel)

8:00 Rest of evening free

Saturday August 16, 2008

8:00-9:30 a.m. Breakfast

8:30-8:45 Opening remarks

8:45-9:15 What Went Wrong with the Shroud's Radiocarbon Date?  Setting it all in context by Paul Maloney, Shroud Science Group Member

9:15-9:45 Overview of and New Findings for Historical and Scientific Evidence Pertaining to Possible “Invisible Mending” of the C-14 area of the

Turin

Shroud by Joseph G. Marino, Shroud Science Group member and M. Sue Benford

9:45-10:15 Surface chemical analysis of the Shroud of

Turin

identifies discrepancies in Radiocarbon Dating Region by M. Sue Benford and Joseph G. Marino, Shroud Science Group member

10:15-10:45 TO BE ANNOUNCED

10:45-11:15 SEM-EDXA Analysis of Red Particles Removed from the Underside of the Turin Shroud in 1988 by Parr RL, Reguly B, MacKenzie A, Merriwether DA, Benford MS, Baraldi P, and Fanti G

11:15-11:45 Questions for morning speakers

11:45-1:15 Lunch

1:15-1:45 Neutron Radiation Effects on Linen Fibers and Consequences for a Radiocarbon Dating by Francesco Barbesino & Mario Moroni, read by Giulio Fanti

1:45-2:15 A Global Forensic Analysis of the Elements of the Shroud of

Turin

: Compatibility Between the Evidences of Vitality and the Absence of Signs of Death on the Cloth by Miguel Lorente

2:15-2:45 The death of the Shroud Man: an improved review by Barbara Faccini, Shroud Science Group member, read by Giulio Fanti

2:45-3:15 The Shroud of

Turin

, The Holographic Experience by Petrus Soons

3:15-3:45 Botany of the Shroud of

Turin

by Avinoam Danin

3:45-4:15 Ancient

Edessa

and the Shroud: History Concealed by the Discipline of the Secret by Jack Markwardt

4:15-4:45 On

Besancon

and Other Plausible Theories for the Shroud During the Missing 150 Years, 1204 to 1355 by Daniel Scavone, Shroud Science Group member

4:45-5:10 Was Sixth-Century Desertification a Factor in the Transfer of Relics from

Palestine

? by Diana Fulbright, Shroud Science Group member

5:10-5:30 A Note on “the Servant of Peter” by Diana Fulbright, Shroud Science Group member

5:30-6:00 Questions for afternoon speakers

6:00-8:00 Dinner

8:00-10:00 GENERAL OPEN FORUM: Twenty Years After – Where Do We Stand with the Carbon dating? moderated by Barrie Schwortz, Shroud of Turin Research Project Documenting Photographer and Shroud Science Group member

SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2008

8:00-9:30 a.m. Breakfast

8:30-9:00 Jesus Christ, the Man of the Shroud, and Bilirubin by Carlo Goldoni, read by Roberto Basso

9:00-9:30 Advancing the Shroud into the 21^st Century: Reaching the next generation by Russ Breault, Shroud Science Group member

9:30-10:00 Focus Projects for Student Involvement in Researching the Scientific Properties of the Shroud of

Turin

by Ray Schneider, Shroud Science Group member

10:00-11:00 GENERAL OPEN FORUM: The 2002 “Restoration” – its Impact and Prospects for Future Testing (and miscellaneous topics) moderated byBarrie Schwortz, Shroud of Turin Research Project Documenting Photographer and Shroud Science Group member

11:00-11:30 The Tangible Emmanuel: How the Scriptures Shed Light on the Meaning and Presence of the Shroud of

Turin

by Chris Knabenshue

11:30 Closing remarks; End of Conference

Ohio Shroud of Turin Conference Blog: Latest updated tentative conference schedule

Pope announces exhibition of Shroud of Turin | The Australian

THE Shroud of Turin, revered Jesus Christ's burial cloth, will go on display in Turin in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said today.

"Another solemn exhibition of the shroud" will take place in spring 2010, the pope said during an audience with pilgrims from Turin.

The display will be "a propitious occasion to contemplate this mysterious visage that speaks silently to men's hearts, inviting them to recognise the face of God," Benedict said.

The piece of linen 4m long and 1m wide, bearing what many believe to be the imprint of Christ's face around the time of his resurrection, was discovered in the mid-14th century in a church in northeastern France.

The relic has been a source of constant controversy.

Historians and scientists using carbon dating techniques say the cloth was fabricated between 1260 and 1390.

This last sentence is sloppy Journalism. Read the front page of this site for an accurate statement on this.

Dad's zest for life and his unshakable faith endure

Nice Father's Day posting:

I read the other day where the Shroud of Turin, the fabled burial cloth of Jesus Christ, will go on display in 2010 in Turin. Three years ago, I would have immediately called my father to tell him. Better yet, he would have beat me to the punch, faxing me instructions to book a flight to Italy.

"It's gonna be OUTASIGHT kiddo!!! CHICKADOOOO!!!!" he'd say in that language of his that was all his own.

Not much about the shroud but the message about faith is clear.

FangGlobalNews: Shroud Of Turin Jesus,Spreading 4 time exhibition every 100 years

Interesting.

This piece of cloth it is the well-known Shroud of Turin , is also that Christianity preserves the closest in the whole world , arouses a piece of things left behind by the deceased of maximal argument, let alone that is a priceless treasure. That somebody believes that this piece spreads is that Christ is used to wrap a corpse being buried after the nail dying on the cross. Have spread the image being printing him seemingly, the negative is the same like the photograph. Academic circles neither has demonstration clear and definite so far pointing out its real false

FangGlobalNews: Shroud Of Turin Jesus,Spreading 4 time exhibition every 100 years

Tim Keller’s ‘The Reason For God’

Christian faith should not be based on the Shroud, even if the Shroud is possibly real. In this excellent book review of Keller's book:

Keller goes on to explain and defend the tenets of the Christian faith- the cross, sin, forgiveness, the person of Jesus, the resurrection and even the new heavens and new earth (and, thank God, there was no reference to anything like the Shroud of Turin). He doesn’t shy away from an explicitly Christian understanding of things and yet explains it in a way that is not overbearing or annoyingly confrontational.

Tim Keller’s ‘The Reason For God’ « bLOGOS

Just for the record, I do think the shroud is authentic.

ThothWeb: Will Judean Desert find shed light on Shroud of Turin?

Hat Tip to Isis at ThothWeb:

Can a 6,000-year-old shroud uncovered in the Judean Desert in 1993 help illuminate the centuries-old debate over the Shroud of Turin? That is the question posed by Olga Negnevitsky, a conservator at the Israel Museum who was involved in the conservation of the lesser-known shroud for the Antiquities Authority after it was discovered inside a small cave near Jericho.

The idea to use the older shroud to learn more about the famous one came to Negnevitsky this week after she listened to an address on the Shroud of Turin at the International Art Conference in Jerusalem on the conservation of cultural and environmental heritage. "If we reexamine the [Jericho] shroud with all the latest modern technology, then maybe we will find out more information that will help solve the secrets of the Shroud of Turin," Negnevitsky said Wednesday.

The finely-decorated shroud, which is 7 meters by 2 m., was found by Israeli archeologists at the entrance to what has been dubbed the Cave of the Warrior, during a search for additional Dead Sea Scrolls near Wadi el-Makkukah.

Instead of finding biblical scrolls, the archeologists stumbled on the 6,000-year-old tomb of a nobleman whose body was wrapped in an elaborate linen shroud.

The skeleton was accompanied by a long flint blade, wooden bowls, sandals of thick leather, and bows.

The shroud, like the Shroud of Turin, had signs of blood on it, likely from a wound suffered by the bandaged warrior, Negnevitsky said.
After painstaking preservation, the shroud was displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1998 and then at the Israel Museum in 2003 before being placed in the storeroom of the Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem, she said.

The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth, about 4.3 m. long and 90 cm. wide, that is kept in a cathedral in Turin, Italy. It bears the faint image of a blood-covered man and is believed by some to be Jesus's burial cloth.

A 1998 radiocarbon test dated the cloth from some time between 1260 and 1390 CE, ruling out any connection with Jesus.

Other studies suggested that the radiocarbon test was flawed and that the shroud was anywhere from 1,300 to 3,000 years old. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have said that pollen and plant images on it put its origins in Jerusalem sometime before the eighth century.

Despite numerous tests carried out over the years, the Shroud of Turin, which was first documented in 1357 in Lirey, France, has remained a puzzle as debate continues over whether it is a major Christian find, a fascinating example of medieval folk art, or a fraud.
The hope is that, provided the Antiquities Authority gives the go-ahead, a comparison with the Jericho-area shroud - found relatively near where scholars believe the Shroud of Turin was discovered - will lead to a more accurate estimate of the latter shroud's age, as well as other information.

"This is another source that could shed light on the mystery of the Shroud of Turin," said Prof. Amos Notea of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, who is the Israel chairman of the conservation conference that brought together scholars from around the world.

"It was here the whole time, but no one connected it until now," Notea said.

ThothWeb - Will Judean Desert find shed light on Shroud of Turin?

BBC Shroud of Turin Documentary Trailer

A movie trailer is available here. Also find links to other pages about the movie. More information at Shroud Story and at A Blogging Anglican Episcopalian.

Shrouded in mystery at Being Frank

Be sure to see the posting at  Shrouded in mystery at Being Frank. James the Least writes:

Then there was that exhibition back a few years ago at the Aotea Centre here in Auckland. The exhibition basically laid out all the various pieces of fact and fiction about the Shroud, including a documentary showing the carbon-dating work that was carried out in the 80’s. That rekindled my interest in the “relic”, and it’s always bubbled away in the back of my mind - what if it is the cloth that wrapped the Body of Christ? It seems, if you’re a fan of science, that it’s probably not, but that exhibition that I went to at least left reasonable doubt in my mind.

I am a fan of science and I am quite convinced it is authentic and mostly for reasons that are scientific. See Shroud Story. Thanks for the posting.

Interfaith Studies: Knights Templar

There is a good summary of information about the Knight Templar at Interfaith Studies: Knights Templar. It is informative and includes many Wikipedia citations for those who wish to dig more details.

One thing that caught my attention was this mention of the shroud. I am not so convinced that the Templar had any direct connection to the shroud but I do believe they knew about it.

One legendary artifact that does have some connection with the Templars is the Shroud of Turin. In 1357, the shroud was first publicly displayed by the family of the grandson of Geoffrey de Charney, the Templar who had been burned at the stake with Jacques de Molay in 1314. The artifact's origins are still a matter of controversy. In 1988, a carbon dating analysis concluded that the shroud was made between 1260 and 1390, a span that includes the last half-century of the Templars.^[68] Disagreement over the proper dating continues.^[69]

Well worth reading. Nicely done.

Shroud of Turin to be displayed to public in 2010

VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- The Shroud of Turin, revered by many as the burial cloth of Christ, will be displayed to the public for the first time in a decade in 2010. Pope Benedict XVI announced during a June 2 audience with pilgrims from Turin that he had approved the shroud's removal from its protective casket for display to the public in the spring of 2010. He told the 7,000 pilgrims gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI hall, "If the Lord grants me life and health, I, too, hope to come" see the shroud displayed. According to tradition, the 14-foot by 4-foot linen cloth is the burial shroud of Jesus. The shroud has a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death. The church has never officially ruled on the shroud's authenticity, saying judgments about its age and origin belonged to scientific investigation. Scientists have debated its authenticity for decades, and studies have led to conflicting results.