FoxNews links to an article in which an Italian scientist claims to have reproduced the visual effects of the Shroud of Turin using nothing but materials available to a medieval artist.
The article notes that the Church does not demand faith in the Shroud, nor does it claim it's authenticity. This boils down to atheists wanting to dismantle unofficial folk belief in an allegedly miraculous relic and reduce it to medieval quackery. As you probably already know, carbon dating does not support the Shroud as having ancient origins--although there are people who claim that fire damage and restorations to the Shroud may have contaminated the carbon dating evidence.
I certainly don't think I'm capable of solving this one way or the other, but I do have some doubts about the methodology of the debunkers. While the results they produced are impressively like photographic effects the "original" Shroud, and while they do manage to use medieval materials, I'm not sure this adequately accounts for motivation. One of the most interesting effects of the Shroud (and the one which the debunkers most sought to replicate) is how the Shroud appears in photographic negative. This obviously could not have been the intention of the medieval forger, since I don't see how a medieval or Renaissance viewer would be able to see the effect.
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