Shroud: Forgery or Miracle?

About this episode

In this episode of The Backstory on the Shroud of Turin, Guy R. Powell welcomes Dale Glover of Real Seekers. Rather than conducting a traditional interview, Guy and Dale revisit major skeptical challenges surrounding the Shroud of Turin. Their discussion grows from Dale’s earlier debate with cognitive neuroscientist James Fodor. Dale examines whether known medieval methods can account for the Shroud’s unusual characteristics. Topics include: • Historical evidence that may predate the fourteenth century • The Shroud’s unusual 3D image information • The VP-8 Image Analyzer and topographical information • Bas-relief theories and wraparound distortion • Problems aligning frontal and dorsal images • The absence of a known medieval artistic technique • Dale’s “minimal relevant features” approach • Superficiality, image uniformity, and vertical collimation • Questions surrounding the 1988 radiocarbon dating • Long fingers and apparent differences in arm length • Rigor mortis and the body’s position • Burial spices and possible cloth positioning • Philosophical criteria for identifying a miracle • The possible motivation behind a medieval forgery Dale argues that proposed natural metho