It was the Good Friday just yesterday and though it is not a festival that is meant for celebration, this little piece of news may give believers a reason to celebrate this weekend.
The famed Turin Shroud may not be a fake after all, though most people have believed the cloth to be a medieval myth. The shroud is widely believed to be the burial cloth of Christ and venerate it with all their heart and soul. Researchers have now estimated that the cloth may be as old as the time of Christ, and have dated it to belonging to any time between 300BC to 400AD. Forensic tests used carbon dating methods and fabric analysis to compare the famed Turin Shroud with other fabric from those times.
Researchers at the University of Padua’s Engineering Faculty studied the fabric’s fibers and concluded that previous studies which claimed that it was just a myth might have been skewed because of years of damage to the fabric. That study was spearheaded by the British Museum in 1988 and concluded that the Turin Shroud was nothing more than a medieval scam.
The new findings may give heart to those who believe in religion and to those who don’t, it may serve as a good example of how effective carbon dating techniques have become lately. It may help us to uncover many more secrets and dispel myths that have existed for a very long time. Carbon dating has already been used to judge the authenticity of books, documents and such in many labs.
It is interesting how a lab technique may settle an argument that has been going on for years. It is also interesting how people continue to believe what they believe despite evidences to the contrary. Scientific methods conducted in labs are the only way to know what is true and what is not.
