Why can’t people admit the “Shroud of Turin” is a fake?

• November 30, 2014
• religion  
• science  

I just read Jerry Coyne’s monologue about the “Shroud of Turin”. I then read Dennis Smitton’s “My Selfish Gene” excellent explanation for someone not knowledgeable about physics how carbon dating tells us the “Shroud of Turin” is a fake. These are only two recent examples, of many, that make it obvious the relic is fake.

So why do so many people continue to believe this is the actual burial cloth of their patron saint? Obviously reality is not a factor. I too am prone to wishful thinking. Yet I find it abhorrent that so many educated people who should know better (and probably do) reinforce those wishes rather than help those people understand how the universe really works.