The Shroud of Turin has been continuously shrouded in controversy. You would think that Christians from the world over, regardless of their in-fighting, would be incredibly intrigued by this large piece of fabric, thought by many to be the burial cloth of the man known as Jesus of Nazareth, widely considered the Christ, or Messiah, by those who claim to follow him.
See how carefully I worded that?
So. What’s so fascinating about this fabric? Well, it dates properly. For hundreds of years, people have accused the individuals of presenting it to the Vatican as having faked it during the Middle Ages. The only problem with this is the image that exists on the actual cloth. The image of a man, literally radiated into the cloth. Front and back. As if wrapped in it.
There is blood, dirt and other materials that are found on the cloth, and once upon a time, a corner of the Shroud of Turin caught fire. The shroud is present the property of the Vatican, but the Catholic church has never offered an official stance on how they feel about about the fabric.
Keep in mind, the Catholic church also didn’t come into existence until 400 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, so it’s not as if they owned it then, or knew who would have held it in their possession for those years beforehand. With the pomp and circumstance of Catholicism, this thing could have been faked for all they knew, and that would really work as a factual relic–but they knew they should hang on to it just in case it was the real deal.
Get on with it! I hear ya. Just setting up the dominoes, here.
Where it gets interesting: The image on the cloth has been studied by the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development, having nothing to do with the Catholic church, or the early days of Christianity within the Middle East before it became the state religion of the Roman empire–nothing like quelling a rebellion of do-gooding than for a government to adopt it and change it. Digressing.
These scientists, mostly archaeologists and technicians, have concluded that the image on the shroud could only be the result of a “short and intense burst of VUV directional radiation.” From my understanding, kind of like a camera flash times a million. Regardless of the “who” that appears in the shroud, the image could not have been faked by any other means.
Today’s technology can’t even replicate the dual image–front and back–that is found on the shroud. And it is factual that such technology capable of creating such intense radiation didn’t exist over 2,000 years ago. Those who believe strongly in the shroud claim that it is the burial cloth of Jesus, and the image was burned into the cloth during his resurrection.
This causes a real problem for Christians who turn their nose up toward science, as well as scientists who dismiss all that can’t explain without the scientific process.
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