Archive
Shroud Update
Ray Schneider at Spitzenpopper provides an interesting update:
The Shroud of Turin continues to be an object of great fascination regardless of whether it is the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ as so many believe or some sort of amazing icon or work of art from the 14th century as the 1988 carbon 14 date seems to suggest it must be. Whichever it is, it is a fascinating and mysterious object.
I have been studying the shroud since the early 1960′s, more seriously in the past 20 years. I am inclined to the view that it is authentic, but there remain plenty of unanswered questions. Perhaps some will be answered using new data. HAL 9000 an organization that specializes in high resolution art photography made a high resolution image of the Da Vinci Last Supper painting and were given an opportunity to apply their wizardry to the Shroud of Turin in January 2008. See a brief video HERE They took a series of over 1600 credit card sized images at high resolution which composited forms the highest resolution image of the Shroud of Turin ever taken.
New Shroud Documentary To Air On Discovery Channel In December
Barrie Schwortz reports:
A new documentary about the Shroud of Turin will air at 10:00 pm, ET, on December 14, 2008 on the Discovery Channel. (Check your local listings for the exact time in your area). The program will also eventually air on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, although no date has yet been announced. The working title of the program is "Shroud of Turin" (although that will probably change by the air date) and the following brief description comes from the Discovery Channel’s website:
The Shroud of Turin was believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus. But in 1988, radiocarbon dating concluded it was a medieval hoax. New scientific evidence poses the first substantive challenge, reopening debate about the Shroud’s authenticity.
The producer attended the Ohio Shroud Conference in August to do research for the program, which has been in production for the past three months. A number of noted Shroud researchers were interviewed for the program, including Joseph Accetta, Peter Schumacher, Dr. Frederick Zugibe, Joe Marino and Sue Benford, Robert Villarreal, and Petrus Soons (to name only a few). In addition to appearing in the program, I also provided the producers with access to the interviews I shot with Ray Rogers in 2004, less than a year before his death. Considering the focus and subject matter of the program, it was extremely important that some of Ray’s own words be included. I should also point out that none of the participants have seen the final program yet, so it is impossible to predict how it will turn out. However, the producer and director have both shown excellent knowledge of the subject matter, a willingness to treat the subject fairly and a sensitivity to its serious nature. I am hopeful that will be reflected in the end result. I plan to include a review of the program in my January 21, 2009 update. In fact, if any of you wish to write and submit a review of the show once it airs, I would be happy to consider it for publication.
The Shroud of Turin Website: Important New Scientific Article Added
Barrie Schwortz reports that his “website has been updated and an important new article has been added to the Scientific Papers & Articles page. Co-authored by noted Shroud scholar Joseph Marino and retired NASA scientist Edwin Prior, the article is titled "Chronological History of the Evidence for the Anomalous Nature of the C-14 Sample Area of the Shroud of Turin." It provides a detailed and compelling summary of all the scientific evidence supporting the theory that an anomalous sample was used for the 1988 c-14 dating of the Shroud. See the Late Breaking Website News Page for details.
“This update also includes notice of a new Shroud documentary scheduled to air in the U.S.A. on Sunday, December 14, 2008 on the Discovery Channel, an update to the Shroud Booklist page of the site and much more.
“The Website Store page has also been updated to include a new, Framed Version of the Miniature Shroud Replica on Cotton Canvas that I have been offering for the past year. This beautifully framed version is being distributed exclusively by HolyArtWorks.com and eliminates the need for buyers to find a custom framer and order an expensive custom frame before displaying the replica. You can see a photograph and get detailed information on the Website Store page of the site.
“I am always looking for ways to provide added value to you, the Mailing List Subscribers, for taking time to join this list, so I am very pleased to announce an Exclusive Offer for Subscribers Only that will never be made available to the general public. I have received a very limited number of beautifully lithographed Shroud Face postcards, printed in England for a Shroud Exhibit held earlier this year. The reverse side is blank so they can be used as postcards or notecards (or inserted into a Christmas card) and are offered in packets of 20 cards. For a photo, details and ordering information visit the Shroud of Turin Website Private Subscribers Page. Please keep this page address confidential to protect one of the benefits you derive from being a subscriber.
“This will be the last update of 2008, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you again for your continued participation and support. I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year. Watch for the next website update on January 21, 2009, which also marks the 13th anniversary of shroud.com. Happy Holidays!
Warmest regards,
Barrie Schwortz
Editor & Publisher
Is the Shroud real? Probably.
The Shroud of Turin may be the real burial cloth of Jesus. The carbon dating, once seemingly proving it was a medieval fake, is now widely thought of as suspect and meaningless. Even the famous Atheist Richard Dawkins admits it is controversial. Christopher Ramsey, the director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Laboratory, thinks more testing is needed. So do many other scientists and archeologists. This is because there are significant scientific and non-religious reasons to doubt the validity of the tests. Chemical analysis, all nicely peer-reviewed in scientific journals and subsequently confirmed by numerous chemists, shows that samples tested are chemically unlike the whole cloth. It was probably a mixture of older threads and newer threads woven into the cloth as part of a medieval repair. Recent robust statistical studies add weight to this theory. Philip Ball, the former physical science editor for Nature when the carbon dating results were published, recently wrote: “It’s fair to say that, despite the seemingly definitive tests in 1988, the status of the Shroud of Turin is murkier than ever.” If we wish to be scientific we must admit we do not know how old the cloth is. But if the newer thread is about half of what was tested – and some evidence suggests that – it is possible that the cloth is from the time of Christ.
No one has a good idea how front and back images of a crucified man came to be on the cloth. Yes, it is possible to create images that look similar. But no one has created images that match the chemistry, peculiar superficiality and profoundly mysterious three-dimensional information content of the images on the Shroud. Again, this is all published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
We simply do not have enough reliable information to arrive at a scientifically rigorous conclusion. Years ago, as a skeptic of the Shroud, I came to realize that while I might believe it was a fake, I could not know so from the facts. Now, as someone who believes it is the real burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth, I similarly realize that a leap of faith over unanswered questions is essential.
My name is Dan Porter. Please email me at DanielRobertPorter@gmail.com
Recent Comments