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Why the images and bloodstains were not painted on
The important work of Donald Lynn and Jean Lorre revisited
In a series of 39 charts, Fourier properties of the Shroud compared to drawings and paintings, O.K. explains why the shroud images are not painted and why bloodstains were not painted on either.
Think of the charts as a guest posting in PDF format. I couldn’t fit it into a simple blog posting and do justice to it, so click on the above link.
O.K. begins with this introduction:
One of the very important, yet rarely mentioned characteristics of the Shroud image is its lack of directionality, that is (to avoid confusion with light directionality, which is also absent) an isotropic FFT spectrum. In layman terms this mean that under high scope, there are no preferred directions in which image intensity modulates. For example , when painter paints a painting he moves his brush in regular way in some (consciously or subconsciously) preferred directions, thus modulating the intensity of the painted area. It can be detected via Fourier transform, or similar (for example wavelet) analysis. It is frequently used in painting analysis –for detection of forgeries for example (each painter has his or her characteristic frequency „signature”, just like handwriting style). Or in other words, according to Wikipedia:
The non -paint origin has been further examined by Fourier transform of the image: common paintings show a directionality that is absent from the Turin Shroud (citing J. J. Lorre – D. J. Lynn, "Digital enhancement of images of the Shroud of Turin", in: Proceedings of the 1977 United States Conference of research on the Shroud of Turin, Albuquerque 1977, Holy Shroud Guild, New York 1977)
Then he shows us!
Then he concludes:
I could write in conclusion the very same what I have written in introduction: as both blood and body images on the Shroud show isotropic FFT spectrum, it practically excludes that they were painted. We can say that the Shroud is indeed in literal sense acheiropoietos –not made (directly) by human hands (Marion and Courage agree with me). It is practically impossible for humans to make images without some preferred directions –they are always established, no matter what human would do, simply our trained behaviour is much more regular, than random –we are unable to make fully random moves, that would erase Fourier traces of our hands moving. And of course such demand was far beyond thinking horizon of medieval forger.
This of course eliminates the so-often-raised-by-the-sceptics scenario that blood (or pseudo-blood) was later manually added by some clever forgers –or any potential touch ups. All McCrones or Freemans who think the body image, or bloodstains were manually applied to the surface of the cloth would have very easy task –just show us Fourier „signature” of the forger. So why haven’t they done this so far, if they are so convinced that their case is right?
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
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