Good thread!!!
I like a good mystery (Loch Ness and Sasquatch are my personal faves) but the Shroud will always be fake in one way or another, due to 'Jesus' being nothing more than an illusionist, an ancient times' David Blaine, if you will.
People have always wanted something to believe in, and if a clever man could perform 'miracles' then he would soon have a decent following, and maybe when he died, they kept the Shroud to provide backup to the Bible.
Ever since the church was formed, they have used the Bible as a means of controlling the masses, telling people to be good, do as they were told, or they would go to Hell! When they were questioned, they called it blasphemy, and had people killed.
Unfortunately, all religion is based on people's faith in the unknown, rather than the known, and in a way, that is how it must be. If a time came when everyone's beliefs were proved to be entirely false, then whole society's would collapse.
If people want to believe, then let them. As long as they don't force any of it on me, I really couldn't care less. As far as the shroud goes, I would like it to be a mystery, but some of the things 'The Luke' brought up make me lean towards it being a well-engineered fake.
(I probably went a bit off-topic there, but oh well...
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