‘Not every relic that is above all doubt must be false’
I do not really know what Clement of Alexandria wrote exactly because I am no expert in the church fathers. However, Vladimir Cini need not worry too much about the difference between ‘the truth’ and ‘the truth according to faith’.
No church or religion can ever produce ‘certainties’. In fact if such ‘certainties’ were known to all, we would not be answering each other! Yes, Clement might have been right. What beggars belief is that Vladimir interprets this as some sort of admission by Clement that the truth of faith is the preferred belief and runs against solid evidence, whatever this solid evidence might be.
Vladimir should be more careful if he proceeds with the mockery of relics. Yes, throughout history, dishonest individuals produced fake relics and sold them to the gullible masses for profit (and of these there are countless examples). This is still done today. However, ridiculing an ancient and long-standing tradition such as the ‘scala sancta’, which comes to us from the 4th century, smacks of outright disrespect and arrogance. Oh, and by the way… I visited this mystical artifact. Was I mislead?
Then, how Vladimir finds the Turin shroud absurd and fake is outright amusing. Such a famous and venerated image has eluded explanation since its documentation and here comes someone who debunks it in a single sentence!
Does Vladimir know that a team of nine scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has confirmed that the 1988 carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin is wrong? Yes, the radiocarbon dating sample which he mentions was taken from a part of the shroud which was repaired in the middle ages using a method of ‘invisible mending’ which is similar to a very interesting technique called ‘French weaving’. The mend is invisible to the naked eye. A simple Google search would confirm what I am writing. If the Shroud of Turin is genuine, it presents us with more mystery and paradox than clarity. That, however, is not as perplexing as it is exciting in an age of diverse beliefs and traditions.
If truth will someday reign, I do not know if places witness of human tragedy such as Lourdes, with its unexplained if not miraculous cures, would be just be remote geographical place names. However I am quite sure that if truth prevails, those who regularly dish out their pseudo-intellect and half truths in the media would be found really wanting.
Vladimir should not be too worried about me. I am no religious fanatic, and I do not pretend to be some saint, but an open minded and inquisitive person who ‘thank God’ reads a lot and treasures fairness.
I encourage the readers to take a leaf out of the book of some famous people such as Lee Wallace, Frank Morison, Lee Strobel, C.S. Lewis, Anthony Flew and Simon Greenleaf who were all avowed atheists or agnostics before doing their own sincere and thorough search with serious earnestness and a mind freed from existing prejudice, and open to conviction. As Lord Bacon said: “There is no other entrance, to the kingdom of man, which is founded in the sciences, than to the kingdom of heaven, into which no one can enter but in the character of a little child.”
Regarding me, I am not willing to continue this correspondence since from his writings, Vladimir seems to have long ago chosen what to believe. I leave it to your sensible and intelligent readers to judge themselves from what was already written and from what they choose to read.
Suggested reading (regarding certain relics and truly fascinating, especially if fed up with the usual and now predictable anti-Christianity conspiracy theories): “The Quest for the True Cross” – Prof. Carsten Peter Thiede, Matthew D’Ancona
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