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

Ruth Gledhill

Ruth Gledhill, Britain’s most famous and outspoken religion journalist has a sense of this. Gledhill, who writes for The Times (of London), was discussing two stories that were breaking around Eastertide of 2009. The first was about a television documentary airing in the U.K that detailed Rogers’ findings. The other story was about documented evidence just recently found in the Vatican archives that explained that medieval Templar knights had venerated the shroud for more than a hundred years before the 1350s and before the earliest possible date determined by the now refuted carbon dating. She wrote:

Year after year, we get stories on the Turin Shroud. It is medieval fake, it isn't a fake. It is Jesus, it isn't Jesus. Now to top them all, we get archives from the Holy See itself supporting the involvement of the Knights Templar. This is Dan Brown-meets-the-Pope territory. But what is great about this particular story is that it is based on verifiable fact. When was the last time that happened with the Turin Shroud? (5)

Actually, verifiable facts are frequently reported. But they go largely unnoticed, indistinguishable from the din of the mythical. Gledhill’s point is nonetheless valid.