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

Worldview Nullification

But we need not limit worldview nullification to phenomena or miracles. It is every bit as applicable to the unexplained, mystery, enigma and anything that is implausibly strange. It is by our worldview that many of us may think that people who take the shroud seriously – shroudies they are called – are like people who sit beside Scotland’s Loch Ness waiting for a glimpse of Nessie, the water monster first encountered by St. Columba in A.D. 565. We may think that shroudies are like those who traipse about the English countryside searching for crop circles in farmer’s fields, and then upon finding one, examining it with all manner of divining paraphernalia looking for extraterrestrial origin or mystical meanings. Shroudies, we may think, are like people who flock to a New Jersey backyard to see a molded-plastic statue of Mary that weeps (for ticket holders only). Shroudies, we may suppose, are like people who see in the shadows and highlights of an official NASA photograph, a gigantic human face on Mars. We might wonder if shroudies are not as nutty as the people who really believe that the earth is flat.

The modern worldview that Borg describes is resonant with newspaper headlines that declare that the shroud is a fraud. It inclines us to trust a news anchor on Fox News (ironically, the network with the motto ‘We report, you decide’) when she says: “Many people believe that the shroud is Jesus’ burial cloth, but scientists say no way.”