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

Rendering on a Computer

Computer programmers have discovered many techniques for rendering three-dimensional objects on a computer screen or a piece of paper. We will consider one. It is called a wire frame. Using X, Y and Z values, they create a virtual wire frame of the object they want to represent then they cover it with a skin. A simple cube is an example. There is not one of us who hasn’t drawn a cube in this way on a sheet of paper. Each of the eight corners of the cube are distinct X, Y and Z values and they are plotted on the screen with mathematical offsets at whatever angle the cube is to be displayed. Line connect the points, which are the wires. The sides of the cube are then covered with a virtual skin or surface which hides the back lines of the cube.

A more difficult example is a globe. Imagine that you want to build a large paper-mâché globe for a float in a Columbus Day parade. You begin by creating a wire frame, perhaps out of chicken wire. You then cover it with pieces of paper dipped in paste. Finally, you paint it to look like the earth. This, in essence, is what computers do, in creating a globe on a computer screen. But there is a problem. It is one of appearance. A globe on a computer screen ends up looking like circle. To solve that problem the program needs to do the same thing that the painter does when he paints a picture of Russell’s table. He needs to simulate light coming from some angle and adjust the color of the globe with highlights and shading. The programmer or graphics artist, like “the painter has to unlearn the habit of thinking that things seem to have the colour which common sense says they 'really' have, and to learn the habit of seeing things as they appear.”