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

Height Data vs Body Distance

This is correct. But it is not the way it has been usually expressed in the field of shroud study. Researchers typically speak of the plots created by the data encoded in the shroud as vertical reliefs and isometric views. This is merely a matter of semantics. There is no difference, at least not at a practical level. But there is another important difference. We have been speaking of height data and most shroud researchers speak of cloth to body distance. Presuming that the man is in a prone position and presuming that the cloth is flat (which cannot be assumed) we mean the same thing in mathematically reciprocal terms. The tip of the nose is high data. It is close to or touching the cloth. The eye sockets are lower. They are farther from the surface of the cloth. It may well be that cloth to body distance is the correct interpretation for up to now no other interpretation has been proposed. Even so, to be honest with ourselves we can’t know this for sure. For our purposes now it doesn’t make any difference.