The Daily Telegraph reports that the Oxford scientist who dated the Turin Shroud as medieval now has significant doubts, and is open to a new carbon-14 dating test. A BBC documentary to be shown on Easter Saturday will bring forward new archaeological and historical evidence supporting the authenticity of the shroud.
I personally am a sucker for all things supernatural. I’ve always believed the shroud is a shapshot of the resurrection. The darkness of the tomb functioned like the inside of a camera and the radiance of the moment of resurrection imprinted Our Lord’s body on the cloth. You see, I’d always rather be guilty of believing too much than too little.
On judgement day I’d rather have the Lord say, “You know, that shroud of Turin and the blood of St Januarius and the incorrupt bodies of saints, and the odor of sanctity and the sun spinning at Fatima and all that? There were natural explanations. You were too gullible.” So call me gullible. Call me a naive fool. I’d rather be guilty of believing too much than too little. I’d rather be a childlike believer than a grown up cynic.
Here’s a good website that gathers some of the latest research on the shroud.
But you know, Fr. Dwight, even if there are natural explanations for these miraculous occurrences, that doesn’t lessen their holiness, or wonder.
I agree with you 100%
Being a scientist, though not in Carbon dating, or archeology, I have always been suspicious of that data.I tend to believe the stuff that was shown only with very advanced computer work and that could NOT have been duplicated in the middle ages. I thinking of the identification of the coins on Jesus’ eyes, and the pollen identification.