Miracle of the Shroud / Blood on the shroud

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You know, HF, I just fail to believe you, because your agenda is clear.
That's OK. You're wrong, but it doesn't matter. Anyway, I've had a look. The thread at debate.atheist.net and Jabba's own shroud debates.com seem to have died down two years and one year ago respectively. godandscience is still current, though it seems a bit slow. I'll keep an eye on it in case it brightens up.
 
That's OK. You're wrong, but it doesn't matter. Anyway, I've had a look. The thread at debate.atheist.net and Jabba's own shroud debates.com seem to have died down two years and one year ago respectively. godandscience is still current, though it seems a bit slow. I'll keep an eye on it in case it brightens up.

So what does that mean? You're going to maintain objectivity about the shroud or something? Objectivity at this point means that the shroud is a 14th century artifact.
 
So what does that mean? You're going to maintain objectivity about the shroud or something? Objectivity at this point means that the shroud is a 14th century artifact.
No, no, dear me, what suspicious minds you have! At the moment they're discussing Giulio Fanti's latest book/paper and ideas, which don't interest me much, so I won't wade in. A few posts back there's a reference to a long interview with Isobel Piczek, who describes how painting-like the shroud is, but then ascribes it to some very weird physics rather than an artist. In another site she is described as the leading theoretical particle physicist on the planet today, having been awarded her PhD in Physics and MA in Art in Hungary at the age of 13. I may feel like asking awkward questions there...
 
No, no, dear me, what suspicious minds you have! At the moment they're discussing Giulio Fanti's latest book/paper and ideas, which don't interest me much, so I won't wade in. A few posts back there's a reference to a long interview with Isobel Piczek, who describes how painting-like the shroud is, but then ascribes it to some very weird physics rather than an artist. In another site she is described as the leading theoretical particle physicist on the planet today, having been awarded her PhD in Physics and MA in Art in Hungary at the age of 13. I may feel like asking awkward questions there...
Suspicious with very good reason. Your internet history preceeds you, and that is most difficult to erase.
 
1) begin to understand each other
We understand you quite well; you have a desperate need top believe in a god and the shroud is a prop in that belief. The reality of the shroud's origin is a threat to that belief and thus must be denied.

2) actually make some progress towards resolving our differences
Will you be embracing reality then?

3) show that actually effective debate between persons with "central" differences of opinion is not just possible, but is something we can deliberately do.
So you'll accept evidence and stop repetitively posting previously debunked crap?
 
...If you don't want to engage with Jabba, then don't. If you do, you must do so on his terms to make him understand your point of view. ...

Must?



... A few posts back there's a reference to a long interview with Isobel Piczek, who describes how painting-like the shroud is, but then ascribes it to some very weird physics rather than an artist. In another site she is described as the leading theoretical particle physicist on the planet today, having been awarded her PhD in Physics and MA in Art in Hungary at the age of 13. I may feel like asking awkward questions there...

You might try the search this thread option to find our discussions about the lady before asking 'awkward' questions anywhere. We have posted up a wealth of information about Isobel Piczek here.
 
You might try the search this thread option to find our discussions about the lady before asking 'awkward' questions anywhere. We have posted up a wealth of information about Isobel Piczek here.
Very little, actually. The word Piczek brings up 5 previous mentions, none of which say much about her, and nothing at all about why she is almost invariably referred to as a physicist. Type "Isabel Piczek" into Google and you get 59000 hits. Add "-physicist" and it goes down to 2000. And is she a Dame? The term is used to denote a woman awarded the equivalent of a knighthood in Britain, but I don't know about Hungary.
 
hughfarey said:
If you do, you must do so on his terms to make him understand your point of view
Actually, I don't have to. The issue is, Jabba failed in his obligation. He jumped into this without doing the requisite background research--he started spouting off about the carbon dating without bothering to learn the most basic facts about how carbon dating works. He demonstrably failed to show a high-school level of understanding (according to the California science standards for 9th through 12th grade) of the subject.

It is therefore HIS obligation to educate himself to the point where he actually understands the system. If he would like my help, I'd be happy to do so. In fact, we've demonstrated our willingness to help--we've provided numerous references for him to use to educate himself on this topic, some of which are free and readily available to anyone who has access to this site (meaning that they require nothing that isn't required on your computer to post here, so we KNOW he can read them). We've also done the math for him. All he needs to do is read it. He has refused.

The fact that he hasn't bothered to do these things means that he's simply not willing to try (it's been a year--if he wanted to, he would have by now). That means that there is ZERO obligation on our part to stoop to his level. Since he is unwilling to attempt to rise to the level of being competent enough to discuss the topics at hand, it's not our job to lobotomize ourselves to the point where we're as ignorant as he is.

Jabba has maliciously attempted to artificially maintain a very low level of knowledge in order--by his own admission at one point--to limit our ability to criticize him. There is no obligation AT ALL for us to play that game merely because he wants to.
 
Try this post as a starting point
http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9069923#post9069923
The infors and links should be of use.
Not really. There is quite a lot in the second link about her and her sister as monumental artists, but nothing about the 'particle physicist' claim. In another place I have found that she is a Dame of the Pontifical Order of St Gregory, which clears that up. The first link in the post contains a misprint and leads to a "Not Found" notice, and the second link is now broken.
I wouldn't find it relevant except that her shroud claim involves a lot of quantum/hologram/event-horizon vocabulary which I believe to be complete non-sense (in its literal rather than pejorative sense), and wonder how it arose.
 
^
I had, once upon a time, a link which traced just how that 'particle physicist' confusion arouse. Apparently it stemmed from an interview with the artist in which she explained how necessary a broad education was for an artist. The Shroudies inflated the claim and it's in that version Piczek was labelled a scientist. I'll try to hunt out the link to that interview.
 
Ah, Isobel Piczek. Just another chance for me to trot out my favorite video (which I will do at the smallest provocation): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRmCaindCpg

She and her glorious wonderful theory appear at about 1:10.

I know you've all seen it, but if you are having a bad day, it will bring a smile to your face, or maybe a sqirt-milk-out-your-nose laugh.

Ward
 
The particle physicist misdirection lives on in FB
"Dame Isabel Paczek (Particle Physicist) commenting on the Shroud of Turin says that people view the tomb of Christ as signifying death, but rather when one studies the positioning of the body in the shroud and the events giving rise to the image ... the tomb of Christ takes on a new astounding meaning ... where it begins to symbolise an unbelievable beginning. Physicists have discovered a true event horizon in the study of the shroud, and in the depth of the collapsed event horizon there is what is called 'singularity' - the same phenomenon that started the universe in the big bang."
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=170680509610310&story_fbid=501248529886838

Here is where the artist is identified as a particle physicist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRmCaindCpg
at 1:12, possibly because she mentions the word singularity.

"Type "Isabel Piczek" into Google and you get 59000 hits. Add "-physicist" and it goes down to 2000."

You noticed, of course, that almost all those hits on the first 10 pages refer to that vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRmCaindCpg
or the book she co-edited on the subject of the TS?

It's a misdirection almost as embarrassing as the continued references to Dmitri Kouznetsov http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRmCaindCpg overthe web.

For example
"Dr. Dimitri Kouznetsov of the Sedov Biopolymer Research Laboratory in Moscow has conducted experiments on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating of samples previously exposed to intense heat. Dr. Kouznetsov acquired an ancient linen cloth with origin in Israel, radiocarbon dated to 200 CE. The cloth was exposed to intense heat in the presence of silver, after which it radiocarbon dated 1400 years later! Dr. Kouznetsov attributes this to biofractionalization and the chemical bonding, under heat, of extrinisic C14 to the linen. I will qualify that there are those who question Dr. Kouznetsov's scientific expertise and methodology. "
http://www.historian.net/shroud.htm

It's interesting to see how these Shroudie errors live on.
 
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Ah, Isobel Piczek. Just another chance for me to trot out my favorite video (which I will do at the smallest provocation): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRmCaindCpg

She and her glorious wonderful theory appear at about 1:10.

I know you've all seen it, but if you are having a bad day, it will bring a smile to your face, or maybe a sqirt-milk-out-your-nose laugh.

Ward
So much stupidity and pseudo-scientific nonsense crammed into so short a video................
 
So much stupidity and pseudo-scientific nonsense crammed into so short a video................

Hilarious how the problems of the image mapping to a real wrapped body become miraculous virtues in that woman's hands. Is she saying the body must have been hovering without gravity between the flat shroud surfaces?
 
^
Taut cloth surfaces.
The lady was quite precise, after all.

Even more hilarious is that Shroudies swallow that guff down to the present day.
 
Ah, Isobel Piczek. Just another chance for me to trot out my favorite video (which I will do at the smallest provocation): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRmCaindCpg

She and her glorious wonderful theory appear at about 1:10.

I know you've all seen it, but if you are having a bad day, it will bring a smile to your face, or maybe a sqirt-milk-out-your-nose laugh.

Ward

Thank you for that, the ability of people to misconstrue science and reason remains limitless. :-)
 
Sample Selection

Jabba:2.1.4. The scientists themselves selected the sample...

This, I take it, is a proposition to be explored. Is that right?...

Hugh,

I just wanted to let you know that what I posted in #7389 was misleading. The sentence in blue was the anti-authentic claim to which my responses in red were referring.

I'll try to be right back.

Rich...

That lead sentence is supposed to be in blue.
 
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Not really. There is quite a lot in the second link about her and her sister as monumental artists, but nothing about the 'particle physicist' claim. In another place I have found that she is a Dame of the Pontifical Order of St Gregory, which clears that up. The first link in the post contains a misprint and leads to a "Not Found" notice, and the second link is now broken.
I wouldn't find it relevant except that her shroud claim involves a lot of quantum/hologram/event-horizon vocabulary which I believe to be complete non-sense (in its literal rather than pejorative sense), and wonder how it arose.

Umm...she wasn't brought up as an "expert" by the majority on the forum who state with sufficient evidence that the shroud is a 13th Century artifact. She was introduced into the discussion by Jabba to back his claims.
 
Jabba:2.1.4. The scientists themselves selected the sample...Hugh,

I just wanted to let you know that what I posted in #7389 was misleading. The sentence in blue was the anti-authentic claim to which my responses in red were referring.

I'll try to be right back.

Rich...

That lead sentence is supposed to be in blue.
I think I understand. Anyway, I think perhaps we should distinguish between the characteristics of the sample - one piece or many, threads or postage stamps, or whatever - and where it would come from. I think it is clear that although Gove thought the date would be seriously compromised by reducing the number of labs from seven to three, those who finally got the job were happy with that decision, and with the decision to take a single cutting from one place. Although this fitted in with the church not wanting to make holes all over the shroud, it suited the C14 scientists as they were more likely to get consistent results. However, it does not seem to have occurred to anyone, until the moment Riggi actually picked up his scissors, to decide whereabouts the piece was to come from.
 
Sample Selection

Archbishop Ballestrero was certainly 'church,' but I think certainly not 'science.' His involvement with the science of the shroud was coincidental with his being the Archbishop of Turin at the time. After the dating, he was apparently happy to accept the 14th century date, although in old age he was quoted as claiming the whole process to have been a masonic plot.
Giovanni Riggi was 'science.' A stamp collector by trade, his interest in the shroud was technical rather than religious. I don't know what his view was of the date of the shroud, before or after its sampling. Gove suggests he was writing a book deploring the use of only one sampling site. That may have been what he was arguing with Gonella about, although his original involvement with the shroud came about because he was a personal friend of Gonella's.
Luigi Gonella was definitely both 'church' and 'science,' being both a Professor of Physics at Turin Polytechnic and Scientific Advisor to the Archbishop. However his interest in the shroud during 1988 appears to have been mainly political, and mostly typified by his antipathy to Carlos Chagas, of the Pontifical Academy of Science, who 'outranked' him until Gonella managed to have him ostracised. Gonella appears to have accepted the C14 date, although had hoped for authenticity.
Of these three, only Gonella was involved in meeting the other scientists. It could be said that he 'represented the church.'

Hugh,

- I suggested Ballestrero as a possible scientist because you weren’t sure yourself. Personally, I don’t know of any scientific connection for him.
- Somewhere, I read that Riggi was the foremost scientific advisor to Ballestrero, so I figured that Riggi "represented" the church – to at least some extent.
- I saw Gonella as representing both, but probably following instructions from the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. I had missed his antipathy to Chagas… There was a lot of antipathy going around.

--- Rich
 
I think I understand. Anyway, I think perhaps we should distinguish between the characteristics of the sample - one piece or many, threads or postage stamps, or whatever - and where it would come from...
Hugh,

- Have you looked into my discussions about effective debate? I have long discussions about it on both my websites. This is what I've been developing, off and on, for over forty years. I've also discussed "debate" and "effective debate," several times in this thread. My interest in debate is a big part of the reason I'm here.
- If you're interested, and have the time, I'll give you the specific url's on my websites.

- Whatever, I expect that most of our disagreements will be based upon our variance in the information we've picked up (and remembered) over the years. Unfortunately, my information resembles a pile of old, disorganized and largely forgotten ****. It is a BIG pile, but not easily separated and searched... You can find more of such claims of mine in this thread under "excuses."

- So far, it seems to me pretty clear that the main factor in determining where and how many samples would be taken from the shroud was the reluctance on the part of the Church to further "desecrate" a sacred artefact. They were risking a lot letting the shroud be carbon dated at all -- and just where the sample would be taken from, and how much would be taken, shouldn't have had anything to do with the Church's reasonable fear that the shroud wasn't the real thing.
- Wouldn't objective scientists have preferred testing numerous pieces over the entire shroud, and not just one small piece from an oft handled corner?

--- Rich
 
Jabba:2.1.4. The scientists themselves selected the sample...



Hugh,

I just wanted to let you know that what I posted in #7389 was misleading. The sentence in blue was the anti-authentic claim to which my responses in red were referring.

I'll try to be right back.

Rich...

That lead sentence is supposed to be in blue.


This really is just some kind of performance art, right?


It's not very good.
 
Hugh,

- Have you looked into my discussions about effective debate? I have long discussions about it on both my websites. This is what I've been developing, off and on, for over forty years.

And in those forty years, has it ever dawned on your that accepting reality and moving on is a healthy element of a debate ?
 
Found the problem....

:covereyes:covereyesJabba's signature quotes:

"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence." Charles Bukowski
"Most good ideas don't work." Jabba
"Tra gli argomenti, colui che ricorre alla meno sarcasmo dovrebbe essere selezionata." Jabba's Razor

The second one is particularly egregious. (Jabba, do you know what defines a "good idea?" Hint: it "works.")
 
Hugh,

- Have you looked into my discussions about effective debate? I have long discussions about it on both my websites. This is what I've been developing, off and on, for over forty years. I've also discussed "debate" and "effective debate," several times in this thread.

And you've clearly demonstrated how NOT to have it, either.



- Whatever, I expect that most of our disagreements will be based upon our variance in the information we've picked up (and remembered) over the years. Unfortunately, my information resembles a pile of old, disorganized and largely forgotten ****. It is a BIG pile, but not easily separated and searched...

Clearly, since you have had to have been educated about so many different aspects of the shroud, you must have forgotten it, or you never knew it in the first place. However, I am trying to understand, in your 40 years or whatever of thinking about this, is "don't bother having actual information readily accessible" part of what you consider to be "effective debate"? I gotta say, sounds like the actual antithesis to it, to me.

I find it ironic how you can talk about "effective debate" in one bullet point, and then in the next talk about how your information is "old, disorganized, and largely forgotten..."
 
Umm...she wasn't brought up as an "expert" by the majority on the forum who state with sufficient evidence that the shroud is a 13th Century artifact. She was introduced into the discussion by Jabba to back his claims.
Indeed; she's hardly mentioned here, but often quoted as an independent 'expert witness' by defenders of the more peculiar hypotheses of image formation. However, in one of her video appearances (with Russ Breault), shorn of any 'quantum fruitloopery' (a UK New Scientist magazine epithet for any unjustified resort to quantum theory as an adequate explanation for any unusual claim), she inadvertently supports the painting theory much better than the natural formation one. Piczek claims to demonstrate that the legs of the image are much shorter than they should be, as if an artist had painted a man lying on his back with his knees bent. The ventral image is therefore somewhat shorter than the dorsal image. She and Russ Breault get confused here, and don't realise that even with his knees bent, the same man's image, front and back, at the same time, should be the same length regardless of perspective. By adducing a horizontal cloth, but making the two images different sizes, they cannot logically claim that the images are of the same man at the same time.
 
Indeed; she's hardly mentioned here, but often quoted as an independent 'expert witness' by defenders of the more peculiar hypotheses of image formation.

Has anyone here appealed to her as an authority? I don't recall seeing it. (Jabba excluded)
 
Your point being?

Incidentally, you are aware that the discussion is about the authenticity of the shroud. Neither you nor Jabba has provided any evidence of this. So why bring this woman up at this point. She was used to justify a claim for authenticity and her entire so called "science" was immediately found to be bogus at best.

What are you trying to do here?
 
Your point being?

Incidentally, you are aware that the discussion is about the authenticity of the shroud. Neither you nor Jabba has provided any evidence of this. So why bring this woman up at this point. She was used to justify a claim for authenticity and her entire so called "science" was immediately found to be bogus at best.

What are you trying to do here?

Muddy the waters.
 
I suggested Ballestrero as a possible scientist because you weren’t sure yourself. Personally, I don’t know of any scientific connection for him.
Me neither. Let's rule him out as a scientist.

Somewhere, I read that Riggi was the foremost scientific advisor to Ballestrero, so I figured that Riggi "represented" the church – to at least some extent.
Riggi was certainly not Ballestrero's foremost scientist; that was Gonella. As a good Catholic, and employed by Ballestrero to wield the scissors, he would have followed the church, but I don't know that he 'represented' it anywhere.

I saw Gonella as representing both, but probably following instructions from the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. I had missed his antipathy to Chagas… There was a lot of antipathy going around.
Gonella was not a member of the Pontifical Academy, and resented Chagas' authority over the matter of the shroud. When it became apparent that the Pontifical Academy was not going to be involved, he was very protective of 'his' authority over it.

- Have you looked into my discussions about effective debate? I have long discussions about it on both my websites. This is what I've been developing, off and on, for over forty years. I've also discussed "debate" and "effective debate," several times in this thread. My interest in debate is a big part of the reason I'm here.
- If you're interested, and have the time, I'll give you the specific url's on my websites.
I shouldn't bother as I'm afraid they would be wasted on me. The philosophy of the nature of debate doesn't keep me awake at night at all.

Whatever, I expect that most of our disagreements will be based upon our variance in the information we've picked up (and remembered) over the years.
Quite, so we must try to base all our opinions on primary sources whenever we can.

So far, it seems to me pretty clear that the main factor in determining where and how many samples would be taken from the shroud was the reluctance on the part of the Church to further "desecrate" a sacred artefact. They were risking a lot letting the shroud be carbon dated at all -- and just where the sample would be taken from, and how much would be taken, shouldn't have had anything to do with the Church's reasonable fear that the shroud wasn't the real thing.
- Wouldn't objective scientists have preferred testing numerous pieces over the entire shroud, and not just one small piece from an oft handled corner
I think it's important not to divorce scientists from their own cultural contexts. Many dedicated carbon daters would no more have wanted to chop little pieces out of the shroud than many bishops, knowing its importance as an archaeological artefact, regardless of provenance. Would objective scientists prefer to test numerous pieces of Christopher Columbus's handkerchief (if such a thing existed), and not just one small piece from an oft handled corner. Possibly, but I doubt if such scientists exist!
 
:covereyes:covereyesJabba's signature quotes:

"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence." Charles Bukowski
"Most good ideas don't work." Jabba
"Tra gli argomenti, colui che ricorre alla meno sarcasmo dovrebbe essere selezionata." Jabba's Razor

The second one is particularly egregious. (Jabba, do you know what defines a "good idea?" Hint: it "works.")


Exactly, and I'm very pleased to find that I'm not the only one to have noticed that particular idiocy.

Every time I read it I think "How could anyone possibly arrive at such a completely arse-about conclusion?"



I find it ironic how you can talk about "effective debate" in one bullet point, and then in the next talk about how your information is "old, disorganized, and largely forgotten..."


Ironic, eh? I admire your politesse.

I would have referred to it as fermented frogpiss.
 
Exactly, and I'm very pleased to find that I'm not the only one to have noticed that particular idiocy.

Every time I read it I think "How could anyone possibly arrive at such a completely arse-about conclusion?"






Ironic, eh? I admire your politesse.

I would have referred to it as fermented frogpiss.
This raises some interesting questions: has the shroud ever been tested for traces of fermented frogpiss? Could fermented frogpiss have thrown off the dating results? If you had enough frogs, could you make an (almost) invisible patch out of fermented frogpiss?
 
Your point being?

Incidentally, you are aware that the discussion is about the authenticity of the shroud. Neither you nor Jabba has provided any evidence of this. So why bring this woman up at this point. She was used to justify a claim for authenticity and her entire so called "science" was immediately found to be bogus at best.

What are you trying to do here?
#7427 Olowkow advises me to check other sites for Jabba's nefarious activity. I do, only to find two of them dead and one moribund. The moribund one has a reference to a video featuring Piczek, "a particle physicist." I feel like disputing this, but doubt if it will elicit much response.
#7448, #7450, #7455 Pakeha suggests I search this site before I do so. There are some interesting links, but the particle physicist thing remains unexplained. Someone, somewhere, once, almost certainly erroneously, described Isabel Piczek as a particle physicist, and the epithet has stuck to her so firmly that 96% of internet mentions of her include that epithet. Don't you find that extraordinary? I should like to find out who started it, and whether it was a mistake or a deliberate obfuscation.
 
This raises some interesting questions: has the shroud ever been tested for traces of fermented frogpiss? Could fermented frogpiss have thrown off the dating results? If you had enough frogs, could you make an (almost) invisible patch out of fermented frogpiss?


One or both of us is a very bad person(s).

I'm going with both.

:)

You (so often) make my day, Ma'am.
 
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