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If you can't see the difference, one wonders how you would react to any proven facts about the Turin Shroud. Would you go mad and commit suicide were it proven beyond doubt to be a fake? Would you murder those who proved it to be fake? More to the point, would you murder those who refused to accept its authenticity should it be proved "real"? Would you forsake your family and become a monk were it proven real? Or would you bid on e-Bay for a grilled cheese sandwich that had the image of The Virgin burned onto the bread? Just how emotionally invested are you in this dubious artifact? The question is rhetorical and I don't need to know the answer. Perhaps you and others do.

Therefore, I stand by the judgement that nothing from Heaven can be possessed on earth. It is against God's will as expressed in the Second Commandment.

And what would you do with your narrow interpretation of the Second Commandment if, beyond any doubt, it was proven genuine and produced by a miracle? Would you presume justified to destroy something made by God?

Would you explain -- what -- to God?

Dan

Would you presume justified to destroy something made by God?

No. Only because I do not believe that any holy object, except for all of Creation itself, has been left by God for Earthly possession, including the Shroud of Turin. Therefore as long as the Shroud's "Holy Authenticity" is always in question, it is quite safe from me.

However, the real crux of this discussion is not whether holy relics are safe from me, but rather is the World safe from the believers of the Shroud. Should the Shroud somehow prove to be authentic, would it become a banner about which to start a Holy War? The implications are enormous. Think about. That's why the 2nd. Commandment exists and why Moses destroyed the Ten Commandments Tablets that were wrought by God on Mt. Sinai. This act by Moses is an allegorical example that nothing made by God is to be be possessed on Earth for reasons of mans own good.

The Shroud of Turin is only a harmless, Medieval relic, as long as it is only regarded a symbol for what it represents and does not become "Holy Unto Itself".