Turin Shroud 'was created
by flash of supernatural light': It couldn't be a medieval forgery say
scientists. David Wilkes 21 December 2011.(c)
The Daily Mail.
The image on the Turin Shroud could not be the
work of medieval forgers but was instead caused by a supernatural ‘flash of
light’, according to scientists. Italian researchers have found evidence that
casts doubt on claims that the relic – said to be the burial cloth of Jesus
– is a fake and they suggest that it could, after all, be authentic. Sceptics
have long argued that the shroud, a rectangular sheet measuring about 14ft
by 3ft, is a forgery dating to medieval times. Scientists from Italy’s National
Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development spent
years trying to replicate the shroud’s markings. They have concluded only
something akin to ultraviolet lasers – far beyond the capability of medieval
forgers – could have created them.
This has led to fresh suggestions that the imprint was indeed created by a huge burst of energy accompanying the Resurrection of Christ. ‘The results show a short and intense burst of UV directional radiation can colour a linen cloth so as to reproduce many of the peculiar characteristics of the body image on the Shroud of Turin,’ the scientists said. The image of the bearded man on the shroud must therefore have been created by ‘some form of electromagnetic energy (such as a flash of light at short wavelength)’, their report concludes.
But it stops short of offering a non-scientific explanation. Professor Paolo Di Lazzaro, who led the study, said: ‘When one talks about a flash of light being able to colour a piece of linen in the same way as the shroud, discussion inevitably touches on things such as miracles. ‘But as scientists, we were concerned only with verifiable scientific processes. We hope our results can open up a philosophical and theological debate.’ For centuries, people have argued about the authenticity of the shroud, which is kept in a climate-controlled case in Turin cathedral. One of the most controversial relics in the Christian world, it bears the faint image of a man whose body appears to have nail wounds to the wrists and feet ’.From David Wilkes:
WHAT IS THE TURIN SHROUD? The Vatican owns the Turin shroud, and hails the relic as an exploration of the ‘darkest mystery of faith’. But the church has shied away from any definitive statement over whether the shroud - which is supposed to have formed Christ's burial robe - is real. The Shroud is thought to have travelled widely before it was brought to France in the 14th century by a Crusader. It was kept in a French convent for years - by nuns who patched it, and where it was damaged by fire. The Shroud was given to the Turin Archbishop in 1578 by the Duke of Savoy and has been kept in the Cathedral ever since. Carbon dating tests in 1988 dated it from between 1260 and 1390 - implying it was a fake. Scientists have since claimed that contamination over the ages from patches, water damage and fire, was not taken sufficiently into account In 1999, two Israeli scientists said plant pollen found on the Shroud supported the view that it comes from the Holy Land. There have been numerous calls for further testing but the Vatican has always refused.
Digital Journal Dec 23, 2011 Italy's National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development published a final report last month on the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, after five years of experiments and studies. It was identified that the Shroud of Turin's image was created by an extremely powerful flash of light, so powerful that Luigi Garlaschelli, a professor of chemistry at Pavia University, described it as unearthly, "The implications are… that the image was formed by a burst of UV energy so intense it could only have been supernatural." MSNBC provides an excellent article by one of the Enea researchers that states, "They don't go so far as to claim a miracle. But the fact that UV laser blasters didn't exist in the 13th century, let alone in Jesus' day, strongly implies that they suspect something out of the ordinary was going on. "Making the assumption of a miracle is a really, really, really, really, really big assumption," said Joe Nickell in the MSNBC article, an investigator for the New York-based Center for Inquiry, who has been following Shroud science for decades. "That it's done in the name of science is just astonishing." According to the Independent, and in case there was any doubt about the preternatural degree of energy needed to make such distinct marks, the Enea report spells it out: "This degree of power cannot be reproduced by any normal UV source built to date." Five years of tests by the Enea demonstrates a low probability that the Shroud is a medieval fake, allowing it to be presented as a scientific challenge. The testing methods used were strips of modern-day linen and an ultraviolet apparatus. "The best method used depended on laser pulses that lasted less than 50 nanoseconds. The Vatican Insider states that "The Enea report, with a lot of fair play and almost 'en passant,' very clearly refutes the hypothesis that the Shroud of Turin might be the work of a medieval forger." The fact the Shroud was thought to be a fake originated with Radiocarbon 14 Dating that was thought to provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin was medieval, with a 95% confidence level that the linen of the Shroud of Turin dated back to AD 1260 - 1390, no earlier. The life of Jesus was c. 6 B.C.E.–c. 30 C.E. Today, the Shroud of 2000 reports that the Shroud of Turin is kept in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist at Turin, Italy. The last time it was brought out for public viewing was 2000; the next public exhibition will be in 2020. In 1307, over 15,000 Knights of Templar were arrested by the King of France as part of the French Inquisition, the Catholic Church's crusade against heresy. All were forced to confess under torture for worshiping a mysterious image. Two primary leaders of the Templars who were burned at the stake were Jacques DeMolay and Geoffrey DeCharney. But in 1353, a descendant of Geoffrey DeCharney revealed in public for the very first time the Shroud of Turin.
Video on Shroud History BBC Program on Shroud Original STURP Findings Shroud story Shroud Evidence