Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Two Big Images

On this age-yellowed piece of linen, there are two full-length, life-size images of a man as though his image had been reflected onto and impressed onto the cloth. One image is the front or ventral view of his body, the other is the back or dorsal view. We say as though because we don’t know.

If you hang the cloth vertically and look at it so that it seems that the man is standing up and looking out from the cloth at you, then the other image, his backside image, in which he seems to be facing into the cloth, is upside down, as though he was standing on his own head.  To say as though reflected onto the cloth because they are positioned as would images be if the cloth was a mirror. We say impressed upon the cloth for lack of a better word, for if they were reflected—and we are not saying they were—they remained on the cloth.