[Alberta's Child]

The problem there is that you're basing your assessment of the Shroud as if it is a "painting" or "illustration" or something similar.

The best explanation I've seen of the Shroud is that it's not a two dimensional "illustration" at all. Instead, it's a two-dimensional image created from a three-dimensional process -- much like an X-ray or MRI. This would mean that the image was created through some kind of supernatural -- or even totally "natural" from the standpoint of physics -- event that cannot be replicated even by the top scientists in the world today.

By all accounts, that event in question was the resurrection of a human being.

[knarf]

I see no evidence of God leaving us with something that could be worshiped as an idol.

Certainly there were artists in the days of Jesus ... no one thought to draw a sketch?

Granted, there are a lot of things we don't know, but there are a lot of things we DO know, and no longer look through a glass darkly.