One thing that really has not been mentioned it that the Shroud itself has a very iffy history. From AD30 through to around 1000AD there is no real reliable mention of the Shroud, except for some texts at St. Catharine's in the Sinai, until Emperor Romanus Tzimikes looted it from Edessa in 944. Before that there were at least 4 towns that claimed to have the Shroud. Edessa wasn't one of them until its first mention of the Mandylion (the orthodox name of the shroud) around 900AD. So how do we know that this shroud is the real Shroud, and not one of the other fakes.
Second the Mandylion was in Constantinople until 1204 when it was looted by French knights on the 4th Crusade. Where was it for the next 150 years or so (if its the same one) when it turned up in Turin. Again there were a lot of other shrouds claimed as the real one. Remember at this time all sorts of so-called holy relics were around that were shown to be forgeries and outright hoaxes. So the rule of extraordinary claims have to demostrate extraordinary proof must be used. In my mind the shroud fanbois have not demonstrated such at this time. >> BTW - an excellent article for information on the latest in Shroud > >Honestly I think this is one of the main reasons that there will be no >closure on this. You can't have a real back and forth on the evidence when >further, confirming testing isn't allowed. > >It's a hard to balance the need to protect the artifact with the inquiry, >but (and again I've not looked into it nearly as much as you) most of the >controversies would seem to be addressable with further tests. The carbon >dating test, in specific - just do 'em damn it. Do 'em and do 'em right. > >Jesus wouldn't mind... take a bit of his foot or something. > >Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:250306 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
