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

Leonardo Struck a Chord

The Leonardo da Vinci theory struck a chord with those who doubted the shroud’s authenticity and had come to realize it was not a painting or some other form of art. It stuck. It wasn’t, after all, until 2005 that we learned that the carbon dating was invalid. It stuck despite the fact that there isn’t the slightest bit of scientific or historical evidence that Leonardo had anything to do with the shroud or even knew about it. It stuck even though it was historically implausible to think that Leonardo or anyone like him leapfrogged all the optical and chemical technology of later centuries to create two life-size photographs on a fourteen-foot long piece of cloth;  technologies never exploited or documented by the man who documented so much.  And if this isn’t enough, Leonardo carefully added the poker holes, limestone dust from the environs of Jerusalem, nearly invisible persistent creases and real human blood as though anticipating modern forensic science.