Thursday, May 9, 2013

The Shroud of Turin: Henrietta Lacks and ASM carbon dating


It may seem stretch but there is a connection between the saga of Henrietta Lacks and ASM carbon testing. It’s simply this: greed. 




I had a conversation with someone well versed in the Shroud from way back. I spoke with him about trying to get the three labs to open up on their samples to see if they have a relationship to Ray Rogers findings. He said it would never happen because ASM carbon testing is now a billion dollar industry and the labs could never admit they were wrong because the financial repercussions would be horrendous. I immediately thought of Henrietta Lacks.
Here’s why.
Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman from Baltimore who died of cancer several decades ago. The Hospital preserved some of her stem cells and they were replicated and became the source of a billions of dollars industry. Her stem cells have built sky scrappers.
What did the estate of Henrietta Lacks get out of this: na da, nothing.
The C-14 testing of the Shroud was an entirely different procedure and industry. However, we are being naive (as I was) in thinking the labs would ever take any steps to jeopardize the validity of their most famous case – the Shroud of Turin. There is too much money at stake.
I am reminded in the story in the Gospel where Christ cured a women of possession but that the demons then went out an possessed a heard of swine which became enraged and stampeded over a cliff. The pig herders then drove Christ away. Salvation could wait, the money mattered more.
I think that enormous progress has been made but the C-14 tests have not yet made it to the dust bin of history. You can not serve God and Mammon. The scientists who stand-by the C-14 testing knowing it was flawed, have made a choice. So did the scientists who exploited Henrietta Lacks’ stem cells and never paid her heirs a dime.

No comments:

Post a Comment