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

What Rogers Discovered

But Ball, in his commentary, explained two distinctly different scientific empirical findings that challenged the accuracy of radiocarbon dating results.  These findings, by chemist Raymond Rogers, clearly demonstrated that the area of the cloth from which the samples were taken was chemically unlike the rest of the cloth in several ways. Thus he concluded that the samples were not representative of the cloth. Moreover, one of those chemical differences, the amount of vanillin, provided a new clue about the cloth’s age. Samples from the main part of the cloth, unlike the carbon 14 sample area, did not contain any vanillin. If the shroud was only as old as the radiocarbon date, it would have plentiful vanillin.

It should also be noted, as Ball makes clear, that Rogers had not set out to prove that radiocarbon dating was wrong. He had complete respect for the technology and the quality of work done by the labs. He had already rejected the two media-popularized theories as to why the tests might be invalid (the scorching fire and the biological film).  Rogers had a disdain for pseudo-science, for those who ignored scientific methods and for those who questioned unquestionable scientific observations. Rogers called those who persisted in defending and promoting unscientific theories, the “lunatic fringe” of shroud research.

It is perhaps human nature at its best or its worst that when something in science or history contradicts what we already believe we challenge it. There must be something wrong with the science. That was what happened to Galileo, was it not.