1. Introduction
The Shroud of Turin is certainly the most intriguing among the archaeological finds. On this rectangular linen appears the image of a crucified man, bloodstains, scorched areas and water marks.
It appears in France around the middle of the 14th century. It, immediately, caused great conflicts even if the people involved were few.
Initially, the contrasts were due to the two possibilities of looking at the above archaeological find:
1) Some have seen a linen sheet where the image of a man beaten, flagellate and crucified appeared. The wounds that the man showed were the image of what written in the Gospels ( United State Conference of Catholic Bishop, 2010 ). There were also those on the forehead, the back of the neck and the side which are alien to Roman crucifixions. However, it presented the traces of the Roman flagrum. This certified that the crucifixion was carried by Roman soldier.
2) Others, on the contrary, found an alleged Relic linked to Jesus Christ, the Nazarene. This happened in a period with a large number of fake Relics circulating in the European continent. For this people, that had already seen many fakes coming from the Middle East or produced on the continent by forger/artists, the linen was certainly a fake.
As time passes, the clash became more intense due to an increasing number of participants. For some, the image on the linen was that of Jesus produced during the Resurrection. For these, God exists. While for others, proving that the Image of the Nazarene on the linen was a fake, meant that the Almighty did not exist. Forget, on both sides, that the Christian belief is not based on Relics, much less on Icons. However, at that time there was great confusion: there were research groups trying to convey their vision to everyone. This happened from both factions: those who supported the miraculous event and the others who believed the medieval false hypothesis.
2. CISS, CICAP and Other Scientists
A new Science was built: The Sindonology, and one had the impression that only the shroudologists were experts of the Turin Shroud. We think, using this logic, how many new disciplines could be born if every Archaeological find, that is on earth, had been taken into consideration! The Sindonology is a set of parts of the Natural Sciences useful for the study of the Shroud. In October 1959 a magazine (Sindon, which will then became Sindon New Series) appears in line with the ideas of the shroudologists even if it was open to many other scientists. In January 2020, thanks to the commitment of the CISS (International Center for Studies on the Shroud) a new magazine, called Sindon, was reborn.
With this new magazine the problem of the above new science (the Sindonology) seems to have been overcome. In fact, in the first number of the new magazine Sindon, an autoritative scholar of the Linen of Turin, the Director of the CISS Zaccone (2020) , in his Editorial declares that the sciences able to study the Shroud are the Chemistry, the Physics, the Biology, the Forensic Medicine, the Technology Textile, etc. Thus, the term sindonology disappears definitively. It was time!
However, in the same writing the author talks about the results that are difficult to use and understand for the non-specialist reader who should be informed with correct disclosure. Sindon aims to establish itself as a benchmark in this turbulent ocean of information and will take care of making the texts understandable and will take stock of the research ( Zaccone, 2020 ). Effectively, the confusion is already present so much that we had written: doing research on the Shroud of Turin is like being in a Babel’s Tower ( Fazio, 2016 ).
We hope that what has been written does not mean that this new magazine can establish what is right and what is not. It would be incorrect from an ethical point of view and very dangerous for possible emulations. For example, even the CICAP (Italian Committee for the Control of Claims on Pseudoscience), which supports with great determination the hypothesis of forgery, could launch another magazine with the intention of deciding what must be accepted, discarding the rest. In this case, paraphrasing the Prof. Zaccone, we would speak of a stormy ocean of information. However, even if the above Italian Committee operates as if the truth was only their prerogative, we look the CICAP only for the investigations they carry out on the Shroud.
For us, who come from the world of Nuclear Physics, the existence of a journal with those objectives is unimaginable. Therefore, it is necessary to propose a magazine that is chosen, by the majority of scientists, for its authority. This would be a benefit to all researchers. Otherwise, it will be as it has always been.
3. Result on the Shroud
Most of the scientists who orbit around the above magazine have a clear idea about the formation of the Shroud Image: a Miracle ( Baldacchini, Di Lazzaro, Murra et al., 2008 ; Di Lazzaro, Murra, Santoni et al., 2010 ; Di Lazzaro, Murra, Santoni et al, 2012 ). We too are Christians who are certain that the Image is that of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene. The difference is in the modalities of its formation because Physics and Theology together, in the above case, do not agree with the hypothesis of a supernatural event: a man (even if he was in the state of a corpse) cannot emit protons or ultraviolet radiation ( Fazio, 2020 ; Fazio, 2022 ; Fazio, 2023 ).
We also do not accept the fake hypothesis for a whole series of experimental results, all in line between them, obtained by a team called “The Shroud of Turin Research Project” (STURP). These, in November 1978, with a continuous commitment of 5 days and 5 nights, have experimentally demonstred that the Blood Image is a contact image ( Heller & Adler, 1981 ; Schwalbe & Rogers, 1982 ; Bucklin, 1982 ).
In fact, the proteins are in the center of the traces, while the serum (well visible in fluorescence) is around ( Miller & Pellicori, 1981 ). It is whole blood with a notable presence of bilirubin ( Heller & Adler, 1981 ) in line with suffering of a crucified man. For the supporters of the false, the above bloodstains have been distributed on the linen where an image had already been created. We affirm that is impossible because this operation cannot produce bloodstains that are of contact and, furthermore, the formation of the Blood Image preceded the one of the Boby Image ( Jumper, Adler, Jackson et al., 1984 ). These characteristics of the Shroud Image constitute an insurmountable barrier that prevents people from accepting the hypothesis of falsification. The scientists of the STURP team in the Abstract of the above final article, among other things, write: “The data, taken together, do not support the hypothesis that the images on the Shroud are due to an artist”. In 1981, three Italian researchers demonstrated that the traces of blood on the Shroud are human blood ( Baima Bollone, Jorio, & Massaro, 1981 ; Baima Bollone, Jorio, & Massaro, 1982 ).
The Body Image is superficial ( Fanti, Botella, Di Lazzaro et al., 2010 ) and it is made from more degraded linen than that present outside the Image which presents the effects of natural prolonged exposure to light and heat. The distribution of the yellowed fibrils that form the Image is such that their density is inversely proportional to the body-sheet distance. Each of the fibrils that form the image has the same optical density and provides an image with the 2D property. In fact it behaves like a photographic negative (reversed colors like left with right). Furthermore, it is possible (for this image only) to obtain a relief reconstruction, with weak distortions. This result gives the Image the 3D property ( Jackson, Jumper, & Ercoline, 1982 ; Jackson, Jumper, & Ercoline, 1984 ).
For supporters of the fake, the Image can be obtained using pigments and then distributing the bloodstains in the appropriate sites. Now, operating in this way, it is not possible to have traces of contact blood. Furthermore, the pigments could satisfy the macroscopic appearance of the Image ( Garlaschelli, 2010 ). At microscopic level, the comparison becomes impossible. Here, it is necessary to remember that the Nuns have already achieved this result by working the linen in their monasteries. Their results are extraordinary; obviously only at a macroscopic level.
Differently, we think a mechanism of formation of type probabilistic. This our belief is due to the distribution of the yellowed fibrils with the same optical density that yield the Body Image. Now, as already stated, on the Shroud there is the evidence that the Blood Image formation preceded that of Body Image. This result affirms that the object of our interest is a latent Image. Therefore, what mechanism can obtain these characteristics if not a stochastic process! ( Fazio & Mandaglio, 2011 ; Fazio, De Leo, Curciarello et al., 2015 ; Fazio, Mandaglio, & Anastasi, 2017 ) This last has the advantage to use the only energy source present in a Sepulcher of the I Century. This energy is that thermal of the body wrapped in the burial linen. His temperature, post mortem, can reach also (41-43) °C as stated by Dr. R. Irvine of the Los Alamos University (quoted in ( Rogers & Arnoldi, 2002 )) So, the above energy will be available until thermal equilibrium, between corpse and burial linen, is reached. However, other sources of energy that the Natural Sciences could accept are not present.
Our process is also in line with the “Ockham’s razor” (a philosophical razor) that is not a physics law but, from Isaak Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz onwards, it is accept by a large number of scientists ( Clark, 1971 ; Soklakov, 2003 ). It affirms: “When various hypotheses have to be considered for an explanation, the most probable is the one that requires the last number of special assumption”. Such a thought is based on that of Aristotle: “Nature operates in the shortest way possible”. In fact, the existence of a correlation between the density of yellowed fibrils and the body-sheet distance ( Jackson, Jumper, & Ercoline, 1982 ; Jackson, Jumper, & Ercoline, 1984 ), it leads us to think that we are within the confines of the Immanent. In this case, a Transcendent explanation is impossible.
4. Conclusion
Now, beyond our beliefs which obviously are for a natural process of probabilistic type (deduced from the distribution of the yellowed fibrils that form the Body Image ( Fazio, Mandaglio, & Anastasi, 2019 ) it is time to address a problem that has always existed. In fact, in the research of the scientists, there is a religious conflict that has a considerable weight in the research made on the Shroud of Turin. We should all admit the conditioning due to religious affiliation and, in general, ideology. In fact, if we look articles and names of authors, we find confirmations of our hypothesis: those convinced that the Turin Linen is the Burial one of the Nazarene are part of the Christian world, especially Catholic. The others, those who believe the Shroud a medieval fake, are Atheists, Agnostics or belonging to other religions.
With this state of affairs, it is difficult to indagate: in fact, the chances of getting a final result are very slim due to the difficulty that researchers and scientists have in discarding many beliefs acquired before coming into contact with the Shroud.