Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

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 CONTACT: Kevin Christopher
 Phone: 716-636-1425 ext. 224
 E-mail: SIKevinC@aol.com

 Body of evidence shows Shroud of Turin is a forgery

 Amherst, NY (August 16, 2000)--The Shroud of Turin was unveiled for a rare
two-month public viewing on Saturday, August 12, in Turin, Italy. Archbishop
Severino Poletto has assured reporters that "the church is not afraid of
science." He and other caretakers of the shroud say they are open to a
scientific reexamination of the cloth. But will any one test settle the
dispute over the shroud's history? Most researchers are eager to test
hypotheses that focus on one narrow aspect of the shroud. One promotes the
pollen evidence, another questions the radiocarbon dating, a third looks for
proofs in the weave of the cloth.

 Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) points out that even
definitive tests are vulnerable to partisan disputes. Scientists insist that
the 1988 radiocarbon dating--performed at three independent
labs--demonstrates once and for all that the shroud is a 14th century
forgery. However, those hoping to buttress the cloth's claim to authenticity
have suggested that bacteria or scorching from the 1532 fire may have
contaminated the sample.

 Nickell believes that examining the preponderance of evidence and
demonstrating how each piece supports the other makes the strongest case. He
has employed this method in his research and is convinced that the shroud is
indeed a medieval forgery. Nickell is author of Inquest on the Shroud of
Turin (Prometheus 1998)-a study that relies on evidence from the Catholic
church's own documents and the gospel account of St. John, in addition to the
"hard" scientific evidence from chemical, microscopic and radiocarbon
analyses . For Nickell, documentary and forensic findings corroborate each
other and point to one answer. "The preponderance of evidence" says Nickell
"leads to the conclusion that the shroud is the work of a medieval artisan."

 The records of the Turin shroud start abruptly in the 14th century A.D. The
earliest document is a bishop's report to Pope Clement VII, dated 1389. The
report states that the cloth had been created as part of a faith-healing
scheme, "the truth being attested by the artist who had painted it."

 Samples of what was claimed to be blood failed a battery of tests in 1973.
In the late 1970s, forensic microanalyst Walter McCrone, an expert in
examining the authenticity of documents and paintings, identified the "blood"
of the shroud as red ocher and vermilion tempera paint, and concluded that
the entire image was painted.

 The 1988 shroud carbon dating--conducted by laboratories in Zurich,
Switzerland, Oxford, England, and the University of Arizona--yielded close
results, giving a date range of A.D.1260-1390. This range coincides with the
forger's confession in the report to Pope Clement. Claims that the carbon
dating was flawed ignore the fact that the shroud would have to be
contaminated with twice its own weight in contaminating material to push the
cloth's age back to the first century A.D.

 Finally, the Turin shroud contradicts the account of Jesus' burial in the
Gospel of John. In the Greek New Testament, Jesus is said to have been
wrapped in othonia-strips of linen, not a whole linen sheet. (John 19:40 and
20:6-7). John also says that Jesus' body was buried in a large quantity of
aloes and myrrh: no trace of either spice has been found on the shroud.

 "Defenders of the shroud typically start with their desired conclusion and
work backward to the evidence; science begins with the evidence and proceeds
forward to a conclusion," says Nickell. Together, the facts corroborate each
other in rejecting the claim that the shroud dates to the time of Jesus.

 Joe Nickell, Ph.D., is CSICOP's Senior Research Fellow and an expert on the
Shroud of Turin. He is author of Inquest on the Shroud of Turin (Prometheus
1983, 1998) and numerous articles, including "Blooming 'Shroud' Claims"
(Skeptical Inquirer, Nov./Dec. 1999) and "Pollens on the 'Shroud': A Study in
Deception" (Skeptical Inquirer Summer 1994).

 The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
(CSICOP) is a non-profit organization founded in 1976 by Dr. Paul Kurtz,
professor emeritus of the State University of New York at Buffalo. CSICOP's
mission is to promote the scientific and critical examination of paranormal
and pseudoscientific claims and to disseminate factual and scientific
information regarding such claims to the media and the public. Skeptical
Inquirer is CSICOP's official journal. Interested media can request comp
copies of Skeptical Inquirer by contacting Kevin Christopher at
SIKevinC@aol.com or (716) 636-1425 ext. 224.

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