The shroud of Turin - the will to believe

Today's article about a competent scientist who thinks he has

    evidence that the famous shroud of Turin is not a hoax will no doubt

    reinforce the " will to believe". The romantic soul in me would also

    like to believe. How can any truly human , human easily resist EVIDENCE

    for RESURRECTION of even  ONE man ?

         The followers of Jesus felt that HE should be immortal -even if

    nobody else was . The MYTH of Jesus - if that is what it is - was the

    creation of a mere handful of disciples. In a FLASH of time, as measured

    by recorded history, they inspired a world conquering religion.

         One not insignificant accomplishment of Christianity is that we no

    longer crucify people in public . We can credit it with taking at least

    some of the heartless cruelty from the cruel,cruel ancient world. ( in

    time it would make its own contribution !

        But if the shroud of Turin is  the REAL THING , why stop there in

    looking for historical evidence for religious TRUTH . Why not literally

    search for the Holy Grail ? Or the True Cross ?

       Why should DIVINITY be so stingy with the evidence ? Why not leave

    us feeble minded humans with irrefutable evidence of RESURRECTION ?

        For me CARBON DATING was as decisive in shroud of Turin controversy

    as DNA typing in the O.J Simpson murder trial.

        My religious grandmother , who lived on Federal Hill in Providence

    for 50 years , once showed me a true miracle of Saint Anthony : the

    bureau cloth in her  bedroom mysteriously caught on fire. On it rested

    a plaster statue of the good saint. She pointed out to 10 year old me

    that the saint's image had been burned into the holy cloth. I could

    only make out a vague outline of the statue myself.

        It had all the reality for me as the MAN IN THE MOON .

      But I loved my grandmother and respected her will to believe .