New Dawkins Challenge Video

OUTSTANDING:  The Shroud-Enigma Dawkins Challenge is simply the best, most professional and accurate short video available on the Shroud of Turin. The focus is the carbon dating issue and the enigma of the image.

The interview with Prof. Christopher Ramsey (pictured)  is vitally important.

Big Winner: The Night of the Shroud directed by Francesca Saracino

HOT OF THE PRESS: The new documentary directed by Francesca Saracino, “The Night of the Shroud” documentary was declared the Los Angeles Movie Awards Winner for Best Documentary Feature, Best Director and Best Visual Effect.

How great is that!

• June 4th: the documentary will be screening in New York City, at Hudson Cinema in Jersey City at 6 pm.
• June,11th: the documentary will be screening in New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, (Universal Studios)

Clarification: Quake DID NOT reveal day of Jesus’ crucifixion

Jefferson Williams writes:

I am the primary author of the research article discussed in this article. We DID NOT determine the date of the crucifixion. This article grossly mischaracterizes our research. We dated an earthquake in Judea to have occurred between 26 and 36 AD based purely on what we saw in the sediments. I created a site to explain this research to the general public. It is http://www.crucifixionquake.info.

The article Williams refers to is not my posting but the article that appeared in MSNBC, HuffPo and other outlets. The title of my posting Quake Reveals Day of Jesus’ Crucifixion (or something like that) echoed the news article. Writing “or something like that” wasn’t clear enough on my part to make it an accurate headline. I apologize for that.

Williams’ site provides a wealth of information with links like:

• 01 Was there really an Earthquake on the Day of the Crucifixion ?
• 02 After Shock
  • Rolling Stone Calculations
• 03 Dating the Crucifixion
• 04 Seismite Formation
• 05 Dating the Seismites
• 06 Varves
• 07 Temporal Patterns
• 08 Darkness

He also wants us to know where he’s coming from, something I appreciate:

Finally, I think I should explain who I am and what I am about. I am first and foremost a scientist. I am also agnostic. I assume the New Testament is a human document that contains errors. I am not trying to prove or disprove the Bible. I am treating the statement by Matthew that there was an earthquake on the day of the crucifixion as a hypothesis that needs to be tested. I will publish whatever I can coax out of the sediments; whether this supports or contradicts biblical accounts. I have much respect for people of faith but I personally do not rely on faith. I am naturally curious and don’t know what the end result will be of the research I am undertaking.

Scientific Study of the Shroud of Turin hampered by STURP?

Charles Freeman writes The pseudo-history of the Shroud of Turin in Yale Books Blog: Yale University Press London to promote a longer critique of Ian Wilson in Steven Schafersman’s Free Inquiry: The Humanist and Skeptic Website (May 24, 2012):

When I was researching my book on medieval relics, Holy Bones, Holy Dust, I decided to leave out the Shroud of Turin. It is essentially a cult of modern times, not a medieval one.

First mentioned in the 1350s, it was even then denounced as a fake and it was only the haunting image revealed by photography in 1898 that transformed it into an icon. When one looked at modern debates over its authenticity they were, and continue to be, acrimonious. The scientific study of the Shroud was hampered in the 1970s by a number of individuals, many of whom had no expertise in ancient textiles, being allowed to examine the Shroud (then still in the ownership of the Royal Family of Savoy) and even remove samples from it. These samples are still travelling around and in doing so have surely lost any integrity as materials on which scientific conclusions can be based; hence, the continued and inclusive debates. It was better to leave well alone.

Then, two months ago, I was sent for review Thomas de Wesselow’s The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Resurrection of Christ (Viking 2012). . . .

[ . . . ]

For those interested in the Shroud of Turin I have now written a longer critique of Wilson’s work to be found on here, entitled The Shroud of Turin and the Image of Edessa: A Misguided Journey

Jones on the Hungarian Pray Manuscript Codex as discussed in Wikipedia

MUST READ:  Stephen E. Jones has an excellent analysis of a recently updated Wikipedia article on the Pray Codex:

These are my comments on the current (1 May 2011) Wikipedia article on the Pray Codex (or Pray Manuscript). Like the curate’s egg, this Wikipedia article is "good in parts." That is, it contains both true and false information about the Pray Manuscript, as I will show.

See in particular points 11. and 12. below, which to my knowledge are two hitherto unrecognised features shared in common between the Pray Manuscript and the Shroud of Turin. The article’s words are bold to distinguish them from mine.

Read: The Shroud of Turin: My critique of "The Pray Codex," Wikipedia, 1 May 2011

Methodist Bishop Refutes Claims Against Bodily Resurrection

Edmond Chua writes in the Singapore edition of the Christian Post (apparently not yet picked up by the US or International editions):

Authors James D. Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici of The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity and Thomas de Wesselow of The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection claim in their books to offer evidence that may oppose the historical Christian teaching that Christ rose bodily when He was resurrected.

The books seem to suggest that Christ may not have physically resurrected, that His physical body could well have decomposed and decayed, that His resurrection could have really been spiritual and that He could have gained a new spiritual body distinct from His physical one.

In view of the apparent theological challenge, The Christian Post invited [Methodist] Bishop Dr. Robert M. Solomon [(pictured here with his wife)] to explore the evangelical view and response to such a viewpoint of the Resurrection. The Bishop responded with his thoughts on the two books and the issue that was raised.

and concludes:

"Christians must rest assured that such spurious and sensational claims by people like Jacobovici and de Wesselow are extremely weak and readily dismissed by the professional experts," said the Bishop. "They may make good money from their sensational books, but they fail to make any dent in the strong historical Christian teaching (and the evidence for it in the Bible and in history) that Jesus rose bodily from the dead."

Source: Bishop Refutes Claims Against Bodily Resurrection of Christ | The Christian Post Singapore

Who knows what nonsense lurks in the hearts of Valencia? The Shadow knows.

A reader writes:

It occurs to me that Nathan Wilson’s famous “Shadow” satisfies all but one of the image characteristics of the The Valencia Shroud Enigma Challenge. That one shortcoming is easy to remedy.

The “Shadow” is certainly a molecular change confined to the outermost few hundred nanometers of the fiber, well within the primary cell wall. The “Shadow” is not visible when viewed with transmitted light. Image intensity does correlate to imagined cloth-to-body distances. There is no side-of-body imaging. Image resolution matches that of the Turin cloth.  And as with the Turin cloth there are no outlines. Nor is there any notion of directionality. Of course, the “Shadow” is very much a photographic-like negative.

There is only the matter of there being no proof of no image below a bloodstain to make the “shadow” fully compliant with the challenge. It is a problem only because no blood was used on the original “Shadow”. That can be corrected and a new image can be prepared in a week’s time.

Please provide the UPS mailing address of the judging panel. To whom should I send wire transfer instructions. 

Maybe the Shadow Shroud really does meet all of the criteria. Nathan can have fun with this and Dawkins may end up having the last laugh.