It's the subsequent layers of hoaxes and wishful thinking that make us suspicious.

Click to enlarge: The Shroud of Turin

I've never felt religious artifacts were necessary for faith, or even a corollary to faith, but when physical evidence lightens the suspension of disbelief, that's a good thing.[1]

I happened upon a recent lecture on the Shroud of Turin in which the speaker was going through most of what I'd heard before, at which point, my skeptical half was saying, "Okay, it's old, it wrapped a dead person, appears to be 1st century, but did it wrap Jesus?

Then the speaker said there was no evidence of decomposition on the Shroud, and bingo, the light goes on.

(If you want to get into all the reasons why the shroud is fake - it's a medieval fraud, it once wrapped some unfortunate soul killed like Jesus, someone stole Jesus' body, Jesus never really died, etc - you can, and they're all good questions, but I've gone over these many times and see little merit in most of them.

You can stretch any explanation to fit, but no one would bother to do this for a lesser historical figure. The only way these explanations sound convincing is if the alternative is unthinkable, in which case you're less debunking and more dismissing.)

Recent tests suggest it's the burial cloth of a 1st century man who was tortured and died and shows no indication of decomposition.

So there it is. No Aramaic graffiti "Jesus was here," just an artifact that looks an awful lot like what an awful lot of people think it is.

There are myriad antiquities with no provenience that certainly at one time belonged to someone we otherwise know from history. There's nothing surprising about a few folks saving something they thought belonged to God. It's the subsequent layers of hoaxes and wishful thinking that make us suspicious (and rightly so).

[2013-06-12]

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Click to enlarge: Turin Shroud (Caravaggio) (c)2003 Rev. Albert R. Dreisbach Jr. Collection, STERA, Inc.

I can't find the lecture I was listening to, but these sources are good:

Wikipedia: Learn more about the Shroud of Turin here > 

Wikipedia: Especially here >
 

 

Proof that the Shroud of Turin is the Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ
(Worth the time if you haven't had much exposure to the religious perspective.)

 

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[1]
More on faith another time.

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