Thread: Shroud of Turin debate

I recently had a little debate with my cousin (OldManRiver) on the Shroud of Turin.

I don't know a whole lot about it, but I saw a segment on it (on the history channel or something) and it seems there is much debate over exactly how the image got on the cloth.

some believe it was supernaturally imprinted...

Spoiler for Miraculous Formation (from wiki article):

Some believers have suggested that the image on the shroud was miraculously produced at the moment of Resurrection by divine methods intended to record the various stages of the Passion of Christ in that "the blood stains from the Shroud seem to record at one moment all the events of the Passion".[47][48] Quoting Pope Paul VI's statement that the shroud is "the wonderful document of His Passion, Death and Resurrection, written for us in letters of blood" author Antonio Cassanelli argues that the shroud is a deliberate divine record of the five stages of the Passion of Christ.[49]
Some believers also contend that empirical analysis and scientific methods will perhaps never advance to a level sufficient for understanding the divine methods used for image formation on the shroud, since the body around whom the shroud was wrapped was not merely human, but divine.[50]

our debate was basically this: what if scientists proved that the imprint on the shroud really is of Jesus, and that the imprint was made by some "supernatural" means? (that is, made by some advanced method completely unknown to us until this point, so, "supernatural.")

what would you do? would it change your beliefs about religion, spirituality?

he said that he would read what Jesus said in the bible, and try to follow it.

my argument however, is that the ONLY THINGS that this would prove, are

a. there was a man crucified in the manner described by christians in the bible (I don't see how it could possibly be proved that it was Jesus, as there is no real, credible evidence that he even existed, but for the sake of argument we'll say they prove it).

b. he had "supernatural" abilities, at least at the moment of his death.

this would certainly NOT prove that:

a. the whole bible is credible, even the things that Jesus supposedly said. (after all, it has been proven that all of it was written a hundred years or so after his death. I don't know exactly how long after? but many years.)

b. there is an afterlife/that heaven and hell exist

c. the god of the Hebrew bible is real

so, if it were proved that the imprint on the Shroud of Turin is of Jesus, and that it was imprinted on the cloth by "supernatural" means...it wouldn't change how I feel about religion/spirituality much at all.

what about you?