Despite Fanti’s new findings, many people — both Christian faithful and secular observers — still consider the Shroud to be fake. Author Lynn Picknett has written a book proposing that Leonardo da Vinci created the Shroud. A French magazine has said it created its own Shroud by using gelatin on a linen sheet laid over a man-like statue. Scientists who performed the original carbon dating tests back in 1988 have maintained their methods were sound and the conclusion that the Shroud is from between 1260 and 1390 is science-backed, despite accusations that the part of the shroud they tested was actually a repair made in the Middle Ages, or had been contaminated by handling or fire.
90 PERCENT SURE
Speaking to MSN News by phone, Breault said “professor Fanti has used some new and very advanced methods in his research."
“He’s compared it to thousands of other samples (from the Biblical era) ... The previous tests were flawed for a number of reasons. I’m 90 percent there that this is probably the Shroud of the historical Jesus. I have to give 10 percent that it could be the work of an artist, but when I look at the totality of all the evidence that puts me at the 90 percent. At the end of the day we don’t have the DNA of Jesus. To that extent the Shroud still relies on faith," says Breault.
Meanwhile, the Shroud will make a high-profile and rare appearance on television on Sunday when Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI uses the artifact in a brief preamble introducing new Pope Francis.
DOUBTS REMAIN
ReplyDeleteDespite Fanti’s new findings, many people — both Christian faithful and secular observers — still consider the Shroud to be fake. Author Lynn Picknett has written a book proposing that Leonardo da Vinci created the Shroud. A French magazine has said it created its own Shroud by using gelatin on a linen sheet laid over a man-like statue. Scientists who performed the original carbon dating tests back in 1988 have maintained their methods were sound and the conclusion that the Shroud is from between 1260 and 1390 is science-backed, despite accusations that the part of the shroud they tested was actually a repair made in the Middle Ages, or had been contaminated by handling or fire.
90 PERCENT SURE
Speaking to MSN News by phone, Breault said “professor Fanti has used some new and very advanced methods in his research."
“He’s compared it to thousands of other samples (from the Biblical era) ... The previous tests were flawed for a number of reasons. I’m 90 percent there that this is probably the Shroud of the historical Jesus. I have to give 10 percent that it could be the work of an artist, but when I look at the totality of all the evidence that puts me at the 90 percent. At the end of the day we don’t have the DNA of Jesus. To that extent the Shroud still relies on faith," says Breault.
Meanwhile, the Shroud will make a high-profile and rare appearance on television on Sunday when Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI uses the artifact in a brief preamble introducing new Pope Francis.