Mark Antonacci | 11-Oct-2014 | 10:15-10:45 am
This paper summarizes the scientific and medical evidence already acquired from the Shroud that is consistent with a series of events and surrounding circumstances reported to have occurred to the historical Jesus Christ in the most attested sources of ancient history. The physical evidence supporting three scientific hypotheses contending the Shroud’s full-length body images were caused by UV or particle radiation emanating from a stationary or disappearing human body that was wrapped in the Shroud are also summarized.1 One such hypothesis, published in Scientific Research and Essays in 2012, can also explain how neutron irradiated cloth can carbon date centuries younger than its actual age. This hypothesis can also explain the Shroud’s excellent and flexible physical condition; its coin, flower and outer side imaging, if any; and the still-red coloration of its embedded blood marks.
Scientific technology that could be adapted and applied to the Shroud and to strategic samples at the molecular and atomic level are also summarized and recommended. These technologies, along with other forms of proposed testing, were presented as the keynote address at the international conference held in Frascati, Italy in conjunction with the last public exhibition of the Shroud in 2010.2 These and other techniques could possibly provide extensive evidence for and against all proposed Shroud body image hypotheses; all proposed explanations for its medieval carbon dating; the age of the cloth and age of its blood; whether the cloth has been irradiated; the type and amount of radiation; whether it came from the body within the cloth; where and when the irradiating event occurred; the identity of the victim; and whether a supernatural event consistent with the resurrection occurred.
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