NO! NO! NO! The scientific method does NOT work like you describe. It stands UNLESS it is FALSIFIED. PROVED WRONG. There are many ways of disproving a C-14 test. . . which is not infallible. In fact you assume that. In this case the proof HAS BEEN PROVIDED. How many times does it take to get through your thick skull that what was tested did NOT REPRESENT WHAT THEY WANTED TO TEST???? They could just as easily tested your old sneakers and gotten as good a result as these... It's the equivalent of what they did!
Proper protocols are important in any testing. Planning is king! The area they took the sample from could NOT have been worse. The STURP scientists in planning for a C-14 testing had already mapped it as a possible repaired area because it was chemically, physically, and photographically different than the main body of the Shroud. It was excluded from the agreed C-14 sample protocols for those reasons. . . but the STURP scientists were excluded from participation in the 1988 testing.
The 1988 scientists also came up with protocols that excluded that corner. But at the last minute, literally, those protocols were thrown out and instead of six samples from six different places, only ONE sample was taken from the worst possible spot. . . a decision made by one person. That's bad science.
Ignoring well planned protocols is why the C14 test is completely invalid. The sample taken was not representative of the item to be tested. Because they DID NOT follow their own protocols, the end result was their sample has been proved to be a melange, a mixture of original and later materials, not homogenous with the intended object to be dated, and therefore, they DID NOT DATE WHAT THEY SAID THEY DATED! Their data are garbage and their conclusion even more so. Garbage in, garbage out.
NOW. Do you understand. That's how the Scientific Method works. That conclusion has been FALSIFIED. Proven wrong, as such it is false and it cannot be used in any scientific article as a FACT. Your using it is a logical error. . . so stop, already. It has been superseded by later work. . . which does NOT have to be the identical kind of test, just work that falsifies it. Pay attention!
Whenever I hear a self-described “scientist” say that a matter must be “settled or closed”, me thinks that political science is in play. Real science is never settled, it is never closed, it is always moving. Like a shark, if it ceases to move, it dies.
I’m with Phileas Fogg on this one.