The
terrible fears engendered by the spread of Ebola have been caused in part by
the insufficiency of the protocols for dealing with the disease. But instances
of scientific failures engendered by the failure to promulgate, and abide by,
effective protocols are not new. It’s the gravity of the Ebola plague that
brings the issue front and center. Another example of failure to adopt and
abide by sufficient protocols relates to the carbon dating of the Shroud of
Turin.
Let’s not
get ahead of the story – and the problem. First let’s look at the C-14 process and
why it can be labeled a legitimate fiasco. To do that, we must look at the
importance of protocols to scientific investigation for the errors of the C-14
process are directly linked to the issue of the use, or rather misuse, of
appropriate protocols.
Excerpt from Chapter 10, The Coming of the Quantum Christ
“The carbon dating of the Shroud will probably go down
in history as one of the greatest fiascos in the history of science. It would
make an excellent case study for any sociologist interested in exploring the ways
in which science is affected by professional biases, prejudices and ambitions,
not to mention religious (and irreligious) beliefs.”
Thomas de Wesselow[i]
Thomas de Wesselow[i]
Checklists, Protocols and Science
Anyone
who has ever received medical treatment, whether at a doctor’s office or a
hospital, has benefited from the use of checklists or protocols by their
physicians or nurses. Protocols represent the required steps of any procedure,
which experience has shown are necessary for the protection of a patient. At
times, it may seem they are merely unnecessary red tape, but behind each step
in a prescribed medical protocol there is usually a story, or often many
stories, of things gone wrong if proper procedures were not followed.
Take
the example of medicine gone awry when doctors in 1886, sought to treat bullet
wound suffered by U. S. President James A. Garfield at the hands of Charles
Guiteau.[ii] Today,
medical experts are unanimous in the opinion that Garfield
His death was caused by massive infections
that finally battered his body into submission. From the outset, steps were
taken that today would be unthinkable. Foremost perhaps, doctors probed for the
assassin’s bullet without washing their hands. While the use of sterilized
procedures had been instituted in Europe by then, such procedures had yet to
take hold in the United
States
Another example where protocols save lives is aviation.
Commercial airlines fly more than two billion passengers a year. The actions of
the pilot and crew before take-off, during the flight and prior to landing are
governed by checklists which are also protocols. Each individual airport will
have procedures set forth in protocols to govern the take-off and landings of
aircraft adjusted for the discrete circumstances of the particular airport and
its environs.
As a result of the checklists and
protocols, the number of commercial aviation deaths in any given year is but a minuscule
fraction of the number of passengers carried. In 2011, 2.9 billion passengers
traveled in commercial airlines and there were only 402 fatalities.[iii] That is .000000014 of a
percent.[iv]
Protocols are also of utmost importance in scientific
research. In the case of clinical trials for the testing of drugs and other
medical procedures, including medical research, the World Health Organization has
adopted a number of forms and recommended protocols.[v]
In the final analysis, the results of any
scientific investigation can only be judged in light of its protocols. There
are two fundamental questions: Were there adequate protocols and were the
protocols followed in practice? If the answer to either of these questions is
no, the results of the study are rendered unacceptable or futile.
There was, and may still be, a common
belief that dating of the Carbon atom isotopes in an object is a fool proof
scientific method of determining the age of an object. When it comes to the
Shroud, nearly everybody wanted to carbon date the Shroud “in the worst way”
and that is precisely what happened. The protocols were supposed to map the way
to the truth. Instead, the truncated protocols adopted led the carbon
scientists over a cliff.
You can read the whole story
in Chapter 10 of my book: The Coming of the Quantum Christ: The Shroud
of Turin and the Apocalypse of Selfishness. It was published this month and
is currently available on available on KINDLE and NOOK
[i] de Wesselow, Thomas, The Sign: The Shroud of Turin New York
[iv] 401 divided by .2,900,000,000.
[v] http://www.who.int/rpc/research_ethics/format_rp/en/index.html
[vi] de Wesselow, Thomas, The Sign: The Shroud of Turin New York
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