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It is not difficult to believe that whoever faked the shroud would use an antique middle-eastern burial fabric as his original material.

Yes, it is... He would have had to know that centuries later there would be scientist such as palynologists and electron microscopists, as well as chemical pyrologists and world class experts on hemoglobin and it's derivatives investigating his cloth so he had to find an ancient cloth with known provenance of 1300 years from a specific area with a specific type of limestone dust imbedded ONLY on the backside of the cloth of the dorsal image and the front side of where the feet would have touched... A limestone that exists only around Jerusalem, Travertine Aragonite... SURE! When any old long tablecloth would have served his purpose for the scamming of ignorant peasants? It is impossible to believe! You infer to this medieval faker an encyclopedic knowledge that is far MORE miraculous than if it IS the Shroud of a known miracle worker!

Sorry - but the kool-aid you've been drinking has gone to your head. Counterfeiters aren't in the business of “scamming ignorant peasants”. In fact during the middle ages, the manufacture of fake relics from the Mideast was a booming business. If one was to create the creme de la creme for sale to the wealthiest and most powerful institution of the time (the Catholic Church), it had better be good; the men who originally bought this weren't stupid, and they certainly weren't going to be taken in by a cheap fake. Not uncommon for items removed from tombs to be used in the manufacture of relics, and a burial shroud from the region (which probably hadn't changed substantially in design for centuries) would be ideal. That would account for the palynological evidence and the hemoglobin. As far as the aragonite (a constituent of some travertines) is concerned, where did you ever get the idea it is somehow unique to Jerusalem? Its very name should tell you differently - it's named after the region in Spain called Aragon. Travertine containing aragonite is found globally. But that's OK - keep reading whatever pseudoscience you like - maybe you could do some “research” on Noah's Ark.

You are totally right, and he would have also know that photography would be invented so that the shroud would show up as a negative...When Jesus went through the resurrection the force of the light of the spirit/soul reentering the body would have been powerful enought to make the image. imho. Just a picture of Jesus left behind for us that believe...

“You infer to this medieval faker an encyclopedic knowledge that is far MORE miraculous than if it IS the Shroud of a known miracle worker!”

Swordmaker, you are correct. Each confirmatory scientific analysis on the Shroud is in itself amazing. The evidence has been unfolding over many years, and I have found it extraordinary.

There are those who absolutely will not accept any of the positive evidence from scientific evaluation on the Shroud because they consider it ‘another of those Catholic relics’ that should have no standing.

Why is it so hard to believe that God might want such a thing as this Shroud to be preserved and found? Our same God put signs in the heavens to proclaim the birth of His Son Jesus. Signs that Eastern ‘astrologers’ were able to read and understand...hence the three ‘wise’ men who came to give Jesus homage. Why not evidence to establish the power unleashed when new life entered the body of our Lord Jesus as he resurrected from the dead?

Btw, I am not a member of the Roman Catholic church, but I am a member of the body of Christ, and I cannot toss disparaging darts at the Shroud each time there is additional evidence that it could really be the Shroud that covered the body of my Lord and Savior.