Zinger ambiguously promotes superstition.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Doesn't officially claim it the real thing but ...

Pope confirms visit to Shroud of Turin; new evidence on shroud emerges (http://thecatholicspirit.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2255&Itemid=33)
The Catholic Spirit (Official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis)

Pope Benedict XVI confirmed his intention to visit the Shroud of Turin when it goes on public display in Turin's cathedral April 10-May 23, 2010.

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The church has never officially ruled on the shroud's authenticity, saying judgments about its age and origin belonged to scientific investigation. Scientists have debated its authenticity for decades, and studies have led to conflicting results.

A recent study by French scientist Thierry Castex has revealed that on the shroud are traces of words in Aramaic spelled with Hebrew letters.

A Vatican researcher, Barbara Frale, told Vatican Radio July 26 that her own studies suggest the letters on the shroud were written more than 1,800 years ago.

She said that in 1978 a Latin professor in Milan noticed Aramaic writing on the shroud and in 1989 scholars discovered Hebrew characters that probably were portions of the phrase "The king of the Jews."

Castex's recent discovery of the word "found" with another word next to it, which still has to be deciphered, "together may mean 'because found' or 'we found,'" she said.

What is interesting, she said, is that it recalls a passage in the Gospel of St. Luke, "We found this man misleading our people," which was what several Jewish leaders told Pontius Pilate when they asked him to condemn Jesus.

She said it would not be unusual for something to be written on a burial cloth in order to indicate the identity of the deceased.

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... and no forger could have known that. http://skepticalcommunity.com/phpbb2/images/smiles/icon_neutral.gif

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Damn I'm good!

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p250/Abdul-Alhazred/---%20NEW%20---/CoolZinger.jpg

[Gord_in_Toronto]

When I read the page at the given url I also see a deal on lasagna pans for $3.75 and up per person.

Is this a good price? :confused: and :boggled:

[Abdul Alhazred]

When I read the page at the given url I also see a deal on lasagna pans for $3.75 and up per person.

Is this a good price? :confused: and :boggled:

With or without an apparition of Mary? ;)

[TimCallahan]

What we have here is an example of the persistence of pseudoscience. The ultimate test of the age of the Shroud of Turin, carbon 14 dating, showed it to be from ca. 1250. Even if that date were off by 200 years, the oldest possible date for the Shroud would be 1050. No sooner were the results of radiocarbon dating published then Shroud advocates came up with a flurry of rationalizations to explain the results away: They claimed that the samples were taken from areas that were partially burned, and this upset the true balance of carbon 14. Or they said samples had been taken from patches, which had been added later and thus didn't give the true age of the Shroud. However, an article published in the British refereed science journal Nature pointed out that the textile experts who had take the samples had taken care to cut away from burned and patched areas. Next, the Shroud advocates claimed that bacterial contamination of the samples had altered the carbon 14 content, making it impossible to get a proper age for the Shroud.

If these rationalizations and special pleadings aren't enough to demonstrate the rather desperate dishonesty of those asserting this is the funeral shroud of Jesus, consider what would have happened had the radiocarbon tests shown the Shroud to be from the first century. Would there have been cautious statements from the advocates sayng that the results needed to be considered in the light of various age ranges allowed in the testing or the effects of burning etc. on the tests? Of course not. Rather, they would have trumpeted to the skies that science had proved this to be the funeral shroud of Jesus.

If you're wondering why the defense of the Shroud is so vehement, since Christianity will obviously not either stand or fall based on the vhistorical validity of the Shroud of Turin, consider that the decomposition of the body could spread to the shroud covering it. Ergo, the existence of an intact shroud is seen by its supporters as proof of the Resurrection. This being the case, no amount of scientific evidence demonstrating its medieval origin is going to register with these people.

As to the Aramaic writing, I wonder if an image of this will be made public. If the Catholic Church shows reluctence to do so, you can bet that evidence of this supposed ancient writing is equivocal at best.

[Abdul Alhazred]

It's a burial shroud with an image on it. Suppose it does date from AD 33?

How does that prove it was Jesus' shroud? Or that the image was somehow miraculously caused by the resurrection?

The very outrageous absurdity of the claim precludes a scientific proof.