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

Graven Images and Such

I sometimes receive more than a hundred of emails about the shroud in a single week. Some are from atheists who insist it is fake because—don’t I get it—God does not exist, or something to that effect. Some are from biblical literalists (creationists and fundamentalists) who insist it contradicts scripture in this particular way or that, so it is obviously fake. Some argue that the shroud is a “graven image” and God would never have created a graven image, so it must be manmade. If I think otherwise, my soul is in mortal danger. I get emails from people who say that secret Bible codes prove it is real. Others tell me that if I magnify the right eye of the man of the shroud, I will see all the proof I need. Apparently, though I cannot see it, there is another image of Jesus, visible much the same way I suppose as I might see a the face on a piece of burned toast. Some of the emails repeat all manner of conspiracy theories and flimsy logic from a multitude of web sites and blogs. Some argue that the shroud proves the Resurrection. Conversely, it proves that Jesus survived the crucifixion, thus explaining the post-Resurrection appearances (swoon theory). It is  a sweat image of the torture of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Painting, photograph, relief-rubbing, dust painting, images of coins, carbon dating, no history before 1350, dematerialization and on and on: there are so many explanations and stories that a veritable cacophony of  myth—modern myth—abounds.