[tlb]

>>>But this is all fine science in the tradition of Bathybius and Piltdown.

So carrying forth this fine line of thought, I guess when we have a Tony Alamo and his underage girls, a Jim Bakker with his waterslide and his real-estate frauds, monasteries with enough splinters of the True Cross to build a frontier fort, yadda yadda yadda x 2000 years, then these invalidate Christianity. Or maybe not, after all “this is all fine religion in the tradition of sideshow carneys and false prophets.”

For myself I like the open minded skepticism of genuine science. It is more reliably self-correcting.

[muawiyah]

The items claimed to be "splinters of the true cross" have all been weighed, measured and cataloged. All together they constitute about half a patibulum ~ the hoax is the claim that they constitute an enormous quantity of material.

I think you have the true cross artifacts confounded in your mind with the "hairs of the prophet".