amine

The Four Image Options

But what do we mean? There is no denying that if this was a physical, bodily resurrection, as many Christians believe, it is to a modern understanding of science absolutely and unquestionably scientifically impossible. But it was always considered impossible from the first moment that followers of Jesus finally understood what had happened as resurrection. The tomb was empty and as the story goes Jesus had reappeared to some of them. It was either a miracle or there was some other explanation.  that he was resurrected. There was only one word for it. It was a miracle. It was an action of God. Can the shroud demonstrate this? There is no question that many are motivated by this. But how? Consider four options:

1.      Manmade: The images are manmade by some still unexplained method.

2.      Completely natural: The images are the product of a natural phenomenon. For instance, amine vapors emitted by a body after death might have reacted with the cloth.

3.      Partly miraculous: The images are formed by some natural phenomenon in conjunction with a miracle, for instance radiation emitted by the body of Christ during the physical act of resurrection.

4.      Completely miraculous: The images are produced miraculously as though God had said, “Let there be an image,” and there was.

Cadaverine and Putrescine

Rogers was convinced that amine vapors emanating from a human corpse, principally very foul smelling cadaverine and putrescine, would react with the concentration layer of starches and saccharides. The reaction, a Maillard reaction, would cause a yellow or browning coloring of the layer covering the outermost fibers of the thread. But would it cause a distinctly clear, almost photorealistic image on a cloth draped over a body? Instinctively, intuitively, rationally people doubted that amine vapors could.

Rogers thought it might. Amine molecules are very heavy compared to many other gaseous materials. They behave differently. But do they behave differently enough? He conducted experiments and found that he could produce rough images at a small distance.