The face from the Shroud of Turin

Some years ago, I researched and wrote a piece for Christian History Institute in which I brought out a number of facts which suggested the Shroud of Turin was a hoax. Holy Shroud, Mysterious Relic.) These included contemporary statements, radio-carbon testing, pigmentation errors, and misleading reports on the shroud’s pollen content. A couple shroud believers wrote me angry emails.

My skeptical approach was right. Luigi Garlaschelli, an Italian professor of inorganic chemistry, has reproduced the shroud, using only methods available in the 13th-century. Carbon dating tests had established that century as the most probable era for its creation.

Garlaschelli was not the first to produce such an image. In Spring, 1982 Skeptical Inquirer also printed pictures of images reproduced using 13th-century techniques.

Alfred Wegener, founder of plate tectonic theory.

In Proverbs there is a wise observation that says, The first to present his case seems right until another comes forward to question him. History has shown this to be true in the sciences. Scientists are not always the best practitioners of the scientific method. Like the rest of us, they can ride hobby horses and develop blind spots.

One of the things I love about this universe that God created is its many possibilities. And I am glad that he makes Galileos who question reigning paradigms.

Three new proposals ask if we have the picture right. Whether their proponents will prove to be Galileos is doubtful; nonetheless their opposition to the Big Bang, Wegnerian plate tectonics, and dark matter are intriguing.

Those who dispute the Big Bang seem to me to be in the weakest position. Led by pioneers such as Irving Langmuir and Hannes Alfven, this coterie of scientists suggest plasma currents in space as an alternative explanation for many of the features we see in the universe. However, their theory does not seem to offer the simplicity and predictive power of the Big Bang.

The great weakness of plate tectonics is its non-intuitive demand that plates are subducted. Somehow a large, floating mass must be forced or drawn down to occupy a smaller, denser space, as if forcing icecubes under water into a tray smaller than they emerged from. This has led to an alternate proposal that expansion of the earth and rotation of plates can better explain observed changes than the dominant theory—especially the chronological record of sea-floor spreading. I like this idea, put forward by Karl Luckert and others, which seems to offer no more insuperable difficulties than those demanded by subduction.

Another interesting alternative proposal to a dominant idea is put forward by physicist Georgi Dvali, who says gravity leakage into extra dimensions can explain cosmological observations better than the problematic theory of dark matter.

Will any of these theories supplant the reigning wisdom? Will the questioners prove more right than the first to present their case? I do not know, but as long as scientists are allowed to question, tests will suggest themselves, and truth will advance.

Isaiah, one of the prophets who spoke against violence.

Not just doing violence but being entertained by it is dangerous. The Universities of Michigan and Iowa State undertook studies which showed that violent media numb viewers to the suffering of others.

Different studies were conducted by Brad Bushman and Craig Anderson. They demonstrated that exposure to violence in media and in video games makes people slower to respond to others who are being attacked, and to downplay the seriousness of violent actions such as fights.

In a backhanded way these findings endorse the wisdom of David, another Bible writer, who, in one of his psalms, vowed to put no evil thing before his eyes.

This optical illusion should squirm under your gaze.

Friday I was looking for 3D optical illusions for an art class. I found a web full of wonderful 2D illusions in the process. The ones that intrigued me the most were those that appear in motion because of the automatic responses of the brain.

To know theoretically that the brain is constantly making calculations unnoticed in the background to process the input of my eyes is one thing, but to see its actual attempts to adjust to the impossible—the illusions wiggling and squirming—is another. It points up what an amazing organ we are dealing with.

The system is so complex it begs for a designer. What is more, it serves a higher purpose, giving fair warning that not everything is as we see. Now why should nature build a metaphysical lesson into our seeing process for us?

P.S. If you know who deserves credit for the illusion above, let me know.

Small group in a church.

Where Christianity has gone, associations and organizations, often loosely modeled on the church, have abounded and flourished—for evidence, see the Encyclopedia of Associations and the International Encyclopedia of Associations. (As an aside, it is notable that some of the governments within the United States were based on organizational structures derived from various Protestant churches.)

Recent work by Australian and British sociologists at the University of Queensland and the University of Exeter has documented that belonging to good groups tends to improve mental and physical health. A number of studies shows that participation in groups is a higher factor in a favorable health prognosis than is the actual progress of a disease.

Among the researchers were Professors Alex Haslam and Dr. Catherine Haslam of the University of Exeter and Professor Jolanda Jetten of the University of Queensland. Not surprisingly, given the interlocking nature of truth, their findings tend to confirm the wisdom of the Bible.

The design of DNA from the U.S. government's genome project.

I find intriguing Schroeder’s continual references to the wisdom of nature which reminds him of Old Testament wisdom references, including Proverbs 3:19—”With wisdom God founded the world.”

I would take it a step farther, however, and say that the most sensible explanation of everything that exists (including Christian history, the cross, and the resurrection), is found in the writings of Paul, who says that Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:22-24) and that it was through him and for him all things were created, visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16ff).

Christian oceanographer Matthew Maury mapped the seas.

His break came when he was given a post considered a sinecure: Superintendent of the Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington, D.C. He found many old logs gathering dust and saw the chance to convert them into maps of winds and currents. He also solicited information from captains world-wide, promising them free publications in return. Millions of his forms were returned to the Depot, enabling him to revise and update maps, and advise the entire world on shipping lanes. He advocated many farsighted advances which are documented in my book Scientists of Faith.

Like many scientists before and after him, Maury’s Christian faith played an integral part in advancing knowledge. He is an example of why thoughtful faith should not be disparaged in scientific circles.

Diagram showing the appendix in a human.

Evidence has mounted against this evolutionary proposal. Studies since Darwin’s day show that 70% of rodents and mammals have groups with appendices—including several which have the larger cecum bowel, which raises the question, what is their appendix a vestige of? Furthermore, appendices appear in species which are unrelated by evolution. How and why did the same organ appear in unrelated species? Did evolution strike in the same way twice? What are the odds of that?

Actually the appendix is now thought to serve a unique and necessary function. The bowel needs certain bacteria to function properly. If these are wiped out, they must be repopulated for the health of the host. This led Maryland researchers to propose that the appendix serves as a “safe haven” for such bacteria and allows the re-population of these benign symbiotic forms in their hosts. Thus the appendix turns out to be beneficial and there is more than a hint of good design.

But what about appendicitis? Again this turns out to be a function of changes in human society, which have set it up for inflammation, rather than faulty design in the organ.

Imaginary planet.

The star and its planet are about 1,000 light years from earth. The team who discovered the planet theorize that its unusual motion is owing to a near-collision with some large body. The planet is also bloated, probably because of an eccentric orbit that brings it quite close to its star at times.

The point of this is that every new discovery shows just how unlikely the stable orbit and just-right conditions of our own earth are, suggesting the hand of a designer in its preparation and maintenance for the support of human life.