imageDavid Goulet, known to those who read some of the more insightful comments in this blog, has an article, The mystery of the Shroud, in Barrys Bay This Week (that’s Barrys Bay, Ontario):

I haven’t written for a while about one of my favourite topics, the Shroud of Turin – the alleged burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Given the upswing in interest in the controversial relic this past year it’s time to take a look at it again.

I’ve been following two Shroud blogs, ahem, religiously. The first is shroud.com which is run by the Shroud of Turin Education and Research Association (STERA) and host Barry Schwortz. It is an archive for all the scientific papers.

Another site is Dan Porter’s shroudstory.com where there’s a daily sifting of the latest Shroud news. It’s frequented by several skeptics who are quick to attack any hint of pseudo-science. Many posters are obviously believers in the Shroud’s authenticity. This leads to passionate exchanges that often turn into schoolyard shouting matches. Fun stuff.

One of the more interesting Shroudies (as Shroud followers are nicknamed) is Canadian Yannick Clement who, though not a professional scientist, brings a pure science approach to his observations. Yannick recently distilled his conclusions about the Shroud into four possibilities:

Go ahead and read more at The mystery of the Shroud.

And as David notes:

A favourite tactic, sadly, is to launch ad hominem attacks at the opposition’s experts – like legal attorneys desperate to undermine witness testimony via character assassination.