"Even with all the help of modern science, there's not much optimism on my part that we could actually replicate a Messiah. "Even if we did by some unbelievable circumstance get the whole DNA sequence, we still don't know what makes people exactly who they are," said James Strange, a professor of religious studies at the University of South Florida. The clone and Jesus would be similar, like New Coke and Coke, but not the Real Thing. Should it happen that, by some modern medical miracle or modern medical mistake, a body resembling Jesus appears, theologians are doubtful the clone would actually be the Jesus Christ. If by some remote possibility the Shroud of Turin was the actual burial cloth of Jesus, the next hurdle would be finding enough cells to actually have a complete DNA string so that Jesus could be replicated. The Roman Catholic Church does not call the cloth a holy relic, but treats it with reverence. Those scientists believe the tests showed the age of the contaminants,rather than the linen. In the 1990s, Garza-Valdes reported in the book The DNA of God the cloning. Radiocarbon testing of the cloth indicated that it is no more than about 700 years old, but some scientists believe the sample was contaminated by bacteria and fungi. DNA on the Shroud of Turin: Distinguishing endogenous versus exogenous DNA. There is ongoing debate about whether the Shroud of Turin, which is in the custody of the Catholic Church, is old enough to have been worn by Jesus. "The problem with the premise is it's been pretty much proven that it is very, very, very unlikely that the Shroud of Turin is actually the Shroud of Jesus, and the idea that we would get DNA from that is beyond believeable," Reddish said. Mitchell Reddish, a professor of religious studies at Stetson University, said the idea is intriguing, but it will have to stay on the silver screen because he doesn't believe the cloth was even worn by Jesus. The cloth, which was kept in a special box, was rescued, but the chapel was severely damaged. He also believes an arson attack last year on the Turin chapel that houses the shroud could have been a bungled attempt to steal it for this very purpose. "Someone in possession of the shroud might just put together enough DNA from the blood on it to clone, Jurassic Park-style, the person to whom the blood belonged, whoever it may be." "Obviously, the church itself would not sanction or instigate cloning from the shroud, but they can't rule out the possibility that someone else might try it," Rolfe said. He claims that the cardinal of Turin has called for the return of blood samples taken from the shroud and given to scientists for testing. Rolfe told the London newspaper the Guardian that his idea is plausible. The idea came from filmmaker David Rolfe, who is planning to make a science fiction thriller about a cloned Jesus. The DNA would be gleaned from a microscopic piece of blood that one researcher claims to have found on the shroud.
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