Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Scanning Electron Microscope

But, as we now have come to realize, Frei may not have used the scanning electron microscope for identifying any of the pollen on the shroud. He never said that he did but implied it. Captions in photographs contained wording such as “pollen types found on the Shroud.” It is doubtful that there are any SEM photos of pollen actually found on the shroud. We have come to realize that some species that Frei identified, could not be identified with only an ordinary light microscope. It was a rhetorical sleight of hand.

What Frei reported was extraordinary. He identified fifty-eight different plants, many from the environs of Jerusalem and areas in Turkey that coincided nicely with Edessa and Constantinople. Those who were looking for confirmation of the shroud’s authenticity were ecstatic. Skeptics, on the other hand, were looking for holes.

One line of attack was to find fault, not with the science, but the man. Frei, it was reported, had made a mistake, a very embarrassing mistake that had absolutely nothing to do with the shroud or with pollen evidence.