Sure! But are we heading into a game of semantics or priorities machinations? We all have our talents.
I have a friend who is a Jesuit priest; a man of great faith, very pious and very devout. He says a brief mass every morning at 6am. He tells me that his final prayerful words as he leave the church each morning are: “I’ve got things to do now, God, so I’ll see you tomorrow if you can spare me a few more minutes.” The rest of the day he does God’s work and forgets about worship. He tells me he is so conditioned to doing what he does that he doesn’t even think about God until the next day.
That is sort of the way I am with the Shroud.
Dan
I understand. I have an intense interest in the Declaration of Independence, even unto the lost "Fair Copy", that Jefferson presented to the Committee of Five before the "official" declaration was drafted and presented to the Continental Congress. It is only a little over 228 years old and is extinct. I would now consider any finding of it to be a "copy" or a deliberate forgery. The Shroud of Turin is assumed to be about 2000 years old. Absent the supernatural, the existence of the original dressing of Christ's body, even assuming great care was tendered to it by His early followers, is highly unlikely. I didn't say impossible, but highly unlikely, which is close as close to impossible as one can get. Given the shrouds finding at the Battle of Poitiers, during the Hundred Years War in the Middle ages, with this times propensity to fabricate holy relics for financial and political reasons, the likelihood of the shroud being authentic is, well, not likely.
But whether the shroud is authentic is not my bone of contention with regard to any relic, it is an example of the reasoning behind the Second Commandment. That being, essentially, that nothing from Heaven can be possessed on Earth. Ponder the wisdom behind this commandment. It is meant to prevent a great deal of bloodshed. Any group, religion, tribe, congregation or nation in possession of a truly holy relic, must somehow have God's approval or, be offending God by being an infidel in possession of a holy object of the truly faithful. Being in actual possession of the true Ark of the Covenant, the True Cross or Mohammed's Saddle, would be cause for war.
Therefore, were the Shroud of Turin somehow proved to be Christ's actual burial shroud, could that not be an excuse for the excesses of religion that has killed millions of people over the millenniums? 9/11 being just a recent reminder.
This I tell you true, If I had the complete True Cross, the Holy Grail (probably wood and decayed by the first century), the ruble of the true Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai, Mohammed's Saddle and Buddha's pillow, I would destroy them all. Not in the name of destroying religion, but in the name of peace and goodwill to all Men.
The Shroud of Turin, even if authentic, by the Grace of God and for the good of Man, must be considered "un-proven".
Regards, Buck.