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

The Sudarium was Carbon Dated

There is a problem. The Sudarium was carbon dated and it came up short. It appears to be cloth that was produced about A.D. 700 plus or minus about 50 years, which coincides with the time the cloth appeared in Spain. If those tests are accurate and meaningful then the Sudarium cannot be authentic. There are some concerns about the quality of the tests that arise and a substantive lack of quality sampling, the provenance of the samples themselves, etc. Even Joe Nickell, its primary skeptic agrees:

It the tests were properly done on samples taken from the Oviedo cloth—an uncertainty, at this point—the cloth appears to date from circa 695, not long before the cloth was reportedly taken to Oviedo in 718. (32)

If those tests are accurate, how do we explain the extraordinary symmetry between the bloodstains on the Sudarium and those on the shroud. Do we simply decide that one is to be trusted and the other not.