Posted on 04/10/2009 4:05:37 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
To believers it is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, miraculously marked with his image.
But the Turin shroud was widely dismissed as a hoax in 1988 when scientific tests found it could not be more than 1,000 years old.
Now one of the scientists who first studied 12 foot-long sheet has spoken - from beyond the grave - of how he came to believe that it could be genuine.
A video made shortly before Raymond Rogers died in 2005 has been discovered, in which the U.S. chemist reveals his own tests show the relic to be much older - dating back to between 1,300 and 3,000 years ago.
Dr Rogers said: 'I don't believe in miracles that defy the laws of nature. After the 1988 investigation I'd given up on the shroud.
'But now I am coming to the conclusion that it has a very good chance of being the piece of cloth that was used to bury the historic Jesus.'
He was on the 1978 team that carried out the first in-depth scientific study of the shroud, which examined its underside for the first time in 400 years. After the 1988 carbon dating Dr Rogers was adamant that the robe was nothing more than a medieval hoax.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Thanks for the ping!
Another great post! This would seem to clinch the argument, wouldn't it? Now, all they need would be to repeat it a couple of times, and the debate would be over -- or at least drastically recast!
Of course, from the Church's perspective, why end the debate too quickly? Why not let new ideas percolate and soak in slowly, so to speak?
For certain, the Shroud has a most interesting history, which will have left many different marks and deposits on it. Look at one section and it says: Medieval repairs, another section may say: sixth century Byzantine, still another: first century Jerusalem, who knows? Perhaps fully unraveling all the Shroud's mysteries could take as long as the Shroud's history itself?
I think that is the power of God, He gives us just enough to force us to have faith.
You said the science gets over your head and I agree fully. I have read some of the scientific articles and they lose me on the first word.
You are spot on with the value of woven cloth - the labour required to produce it was mind-boggling.
That is why rag-pickers could make a living at it - it was an early form of recycling, I suppose.
But I do not think it is a fake.
Happy Easter!
Thank you.
The KEY word is "unauthorized" and the results cannot be published although they are talked about among Shroud investigators. The Church did not authorize the C14 test on one of the threads taken in 1978 but it was done. The results strongly suggest that the main body is first century. With modern C14 small sample methodology and accuracy, a few 1 cm threads would be sufficient for numerous tests.
The hard part is warping the loom. Warping requires planning, measuring and mathematics. When you weave wool, you must starch the thread because wool is flexible and stretches and causes all kind of limpy, saggy, problems. But you starch linen because it won't stretch, is inflexible by its nature, and will break.
I keep saying this because a twelve-yard piece of linen fabric that survives two millenniums is completely miraculous without any graphic depictions. Understand that such a textile, without the graphic, is already miraculous.
Not twelve, Mamzelle, only four yards, it's 14 feet long.
I think it’s real.
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