To the dismay of "Christians"? How about to dismay of those who happened to really, really believe that the shroud was for real and had based their entire faith on it.
How about to dismay of those who happened to really, really believe that the shroud was for real and had based their entire faith on it.
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I’m not being a smarta$$ (for once). Do such people actually exist, and wouldn’t that really be at odds the basic precepts of Christianity, that one would base their entire faith on the authenticity of a burial shroud?
I have to admit also the possibility that your response was tongue in cheek.
I personally believe that the earlier tests performed on the shroud were falsified, perhaps deliberately, perhaps inadvertantly. It was known that there were later stains on the parts tested. There is quite a bit of other evidence, such as embedded pollen, that the shroud is much older than that.
This has nothing to do with anyone’s faith. The Catholic Church treats such things, even this perhaps most famous of all relics, as matters of judgement or private believe, and does not require anyone to believe in them.
I happen personally, after having read a good deal of discussion of the evidence, to believe that it is probably real. How else do you explain it—a negative image made long before anyone had ever heard of such things?
Those who insist that it MUST be a fake, on the other hand, and ignore all evidence to the contrary, are more superstitious than those who suspend judgment, IMHO.
Faith is not based on facts - that is why it is called “faith”.
Personally, there are far too many things about this relic which imply it is genuine than any explanations that it is a forgery.
Remember Occam’s razor.