Welcome to our Shroud Discussion and Research Database. There is a lot of information, blogs, academic/scientific research, media, and discussion about the Shroud of Turin on the internet. However, distinguishing between studies and articles that support authentication, versus ones that don't, can be an arduous task. What kind of scientists conducted this study? How respected are they? Do they have an inherent bias or agenda? How credible are their findings? And who disagrees with them?
Indeed, the more you'll read, you'll find that despite the statements by some that evidence for authenticty is "overwhelming", in fact there is almost no point of fact related to the various characteristics of the Shroud that is not contested, even among authenticists. This heated exchange between lawyer and longtime Shroud researcher Mark Antonacci, and French Medical Doctor and equally long time Shroud researcher Thibault Hiemburger is a great example.
One of the best online resources you can find for Shroud Research is the blog Shroud Story by an Episcopalian named Dan Porter. For around 8 faithful years Dan blogged on a near daily basis about everything related to the Shroud, in as balanced a manner as you'll find. He was never afraid to revisit a point of evidence that he has formerly thought a sure thing, and welcomed skeptics as well as devotees. The sheer numbers bears that out, the leading skeptics on his blog had some of the highest post counts. But the discussion often turned acrimonious, and Dan finally had enough of trying to babysit posters behaving badly, and closed up all commenting, and retired from blogging in December of 2015.
The nearly 70,000 comments on his blog represent an incredible repository of Shroud thought, debate, research, and resources. Included in the posters are some well known researchers, and those who have first hand knowledge of the Shroud, such as Barrie Schwortz. You'll find threads by researchers and authors like Giulio Fanti, Joe Marino, Thibault Hiemburger, Mark Antonacci, John Klotz, Russ Breault, Robert Rucker, Mario Latendresse, Kelly Kearse, along with noted Skeptics like Hugh Farey, Colin Berry, Charles Freeman, and much more. This app began because I became frustrated trying to search through volumes of long intertwined conversation threads just to find out what 1 man thought about the subject. You will find opinions and rebuttals regarding nearly every topic involving the Shroud, and most the well known researchers and studies.
So this app is organized by author, and by subject (such as blood, forensic, image, history, etc). The point isn't to steal content from the 3 blogs I drew from (in addition to Shroud Story I also imported the publicly posted comments from Stephen Moore and Colin Berry's blogs.) I link only the original articles, and don't reproduce any here. The point is to be able to find posters that you think have valid points, and create your own notebook of Shroud thought and resources, so you can better arrive at your own conclusions. As for copyright, blog comments are not protected, but if anybody has a problem with their posts being included here, please use the contact us form on this website.
As for me I'm not sure what to think of the Shroud yet! I'd love to be a 100% authenticist, but I guess I'm too bogged down in questioning the details and shortcomings of various arguments to have that kind of satisfaction. I do not however believe it to be a forgery either - as that has not been proven to any level of certainty either (sorry, you can't rest on the C14 results with so many outstanding issues). For the record I'm an Episcopalian too, and it's my humble opinion that if there's even a fraction of a chance that the Shroud is real, we must continue studying it to the very end! Who knows what mysteries about humanity the Shroud may solve...
~ Stacey Reiman, Anchorage Alaska August 2018