Skeptics and True Believers In the first chapter, Raymo opens with a speech about his childhood. He brings to the surface the fact that children will believe virtually anything they are told. In this chapter Raymo explains how people transform from children into adult sluts, people somehow retain some of the childish ability to believe in the unbelievable. It is the True Believer who maintains “an absolute in some empirically unverifiable forms of fiction...” (13), while the Skeptic always “keeps a wary eye even on firmly established facts.”(14) For example, Raymo uses the Shroud of Turin, which is simply a linen cloth that has the appearance of a man (some believe this man is Christ). It tells of a time when Roman Catholic authorities allowed scientists to radiocarbon date the Shroud. Small samples of the Shroud were sent, along with three control samples of known age, to three independent laboratories. All three correctly dated checks and dated the Shroud to the medieval period. Raymo concluded that a skeptic would take the evidence and believe it, while the true believer would find no truth in what was found. In fact, he said the True Believer would provide explanations as to why the Shroud appears younger than it actually is. In the next chapter, Raymo explains that the main difference between skeptics and True Believers is the opposite of what most people would think. He explains how "scientific concepts can be extraordinarily bizarre..." (27), while the True Believer believes in what may seem much more sensible and somewhat concrete. The example Raymo uses for this is DNA and its ability to reproduce. This tiny double helix somehow manages to escape and create a copy of itself from the chemical components of whatever is around it. It may seem easier to believe in a Shroud with a man's face inside, or in the image of God in the Sistine Chapel, but it is the skeptics who believe in DNA that are difficult to conceive. It is this DNA that contains the blueprints of how we should look, speak and act. In the fourth chapter, Raymo recalls his childhood again. He tells how he was forced into religion. The Church does not allow doubts to be spoken about. Because if it were questioned the entire religious system could collapse. The only sources of information were the nuns, the priest and all other authorities "chosen" by God.