Religion and science are two fascinating subjects most people want to keep at arm’s length. Yet here we have the Shroud of Turin back in the headlines, for both religious and scientific reasons.

Believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, the Shroud of Turin will go on display for six weeks from April 10 at its home, the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy.

It has been 10 years since the public was last allowed to lay eyes on the real thing, and more than 1 million people have reserved a spot in the queue this time.

At the same time the scientific community is back on the case, which is surprising. The shroud was written off in 1988 after carbon testing of a sample taken from the artefact dated back to the Middle Ages, somewhere between 1260 and 1390.

These findings meant that even if it was a real man’s image on the shroud, it couldn’t possibly be Jesus.

Media reports are now focused on new 3D imaging technology that reveals the person on the shroud was in fact a real human. The images themselves are arresting. A hologram expert speaking on Turin Shroud commented: “People start spontaneously crying in front of these images.”

The passing inference is that when the sacred and scientific collide, the results are profound. These 3D images have strengthened the believers and started to convince the skeptics the shroud is authentic after all. But is the 3D technology credible enough? Not really.

The real story is one that has mystified the scientific world since 2005. A journal publication by Ray Rogers, director of chemical research for the Shroud of Turin Research Project who first studied the artefact in 1978, gave credible pause for scientific thought.

Shortly before his death from cancer in 2005, Rogers published the findings of detailed research in which he tried to refute new claims by shroud devotees Joseph Marino and Sue Benford.

Marino and Benford, who hailed from Ohio and had no scientific background, had studied X-rays of samples taken from the shroud for the Carbon-14 tests and concluded they were contaminated.

Their argument was that well-known repairs made to the shroud over the centuries included first century cotton interwoven with the original linen. They concluded the sample chosen for the carbon tests contained this interwoven fabric which accounted for its dating to Middle Ages.

Rogers, a scientist who rejected anything that didn’t conform to the laws of nature, had decided these guys were simply a product of the ‘lunatic fringe’.

But to his surprise, analysis of fibre fragments retained for the carbon dating revealed Marino and Benford were right.

“My conclusion is that area was manipulated,” Rogers says. “I’m coming to the conclusion it was the shroud of Jesus Christ.”

So what now? Rogers believed new carbon testing is required using non-contaminated samples from the shroud, such as areas where it was burnt centuries ago.

The technology exists to retest the cloth and these charred fragments are now believed to hold the key to determining the real date.

We’re left with a lot of questions at this point. Could science actually prove the shroud is 2000 years old? If so, can we truly say this is the same strip of linen used to wrap Jesus Christ? And ultimately will more people believe the claims of Jesus if they’re satisfied the shroud proves his existence?

They’re the questions that will maintain pressure on the Catholic Church to make the shroud available for scientific inquiry once more. Yet I suspect that regardless of what happens in the shroud’s future, the scientific and religious camps will maintain an uneasy coalition.

It reminds me of what happened when Jewish leaders challenged Jesus. Doubtful he was the promised Messiah, the Biblical account says the Pharisees demanded he perform a miraculous sign to prove he was from God.

Jesus responded with an analogy. Jonah was proven to be an authentic preacher because he miraculously survived three days and nights in the belly of a fish, or whale.

Likewise, Jesus told the Jews his authenticity wouldn’t come from signs and wonders, but his own miracle-conquering death for the sake of sinners and rising to life eternal three days and nights after his crucifixion.

That’s the real wonder of the Easter story, and one that shroud science will have difficulty resolving even if it proves Jesus died.