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

Swoon Theory

Called the Swoon Theory, the argument that Jesus recovered from his wounds, comes up every now and then. It is an attempt to explain the post-resurrection appearances. Few biblical scholars take it seriously. The Shroud, if it is real, further refutes this theory. Medical experts who have studied the frontal and dorsal images of the man on the Shroud clearly see a man in rigor mortis. They believe, as well, that there is distinguishable evidence of postmortem blood flows. The severity of the trauma evidenced by various wounds visible on the Shroud—including the stabbing wound to the chest—is so serious that it highly unlikely that the man of the Shroud could not have survived long given the medical circumstances of the first century.

Other possibilities simply become implausible. For instance, why would the Shroud be in the wrong tomb? Or, why would the Shroud even exist if the entire story of an empty tomb is fiction?

Science is good at figuring out that with certain ingredients and certain conditions, certain processes will start and end. And it may well be that scientists will eventually figure out a complex process by which the images were seemingly so miraculously formed on the Shroud. Will scientist also be able to deal with the problem of how likely it is that all those right ingredients and conditions might have prevailed perhaps only once in history.