Fun_People Archive
19 Dec
Jesus rock face branded a fake

Date: Tue, 19 Dec 95 14:23:33 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Jesus rock face branded a fake

Forwarded-by: elshaw@MIT.EDU (Libby Shaw)
Forwarded-by: Phil Dench <architec@cs.curtin.edu.au>

From: The West Australian, Perth Monday December 18 1995, Page 1

	Jesus rock face branded a fake

	By Carmello Amalfi and Janine MacDonald

An image of Jesus Christ found on a rock in Beverley is almost identical to
a computer image widely available through a Canadian graphics computer
software company.

A sceptical Beverley farmer, who showed paper copies of the image to
pilgrims visiting the scared stone at the town hall, has denounced the rock
image as a fake and says it has nothing to with divine intervention.

Local businessman Julian Webb claimed he found the rock while on an evening
walk with his 20-year-old son Adrian more than five weeks ago.

The clip art computer package, by Corel Corp, is supplied alone or with
other packages such as Corel Draw. The image, called JESUS.CMX, is found in
the Corel Gallery package under clip art category Faith.

Several hundred people have already travelled to the Wheatbelt town to see
the rock.

Yesterday, the stone was covered in perspex, and adorned with hay and
lights, similar to a nativity scene.

Pamphlets were handed out and a computer-generated text explained how the
rock was found and how people had reacted to the "Wheatbelt miracle".

Mr Webb is seeking donations for a shelter where the rock was found, so
people can pray at the site. By last night, he had raised $62.

Mr Webb said he had not seen the computerised image until the sceptical
farmer, who does not want to be named, approached him with a copy of the
artwork on Saturday. Mr Webb said it was not the same image.

"The mouth and eyes are not the same," said Mr Webb, who was still undecided
about getting the rock image tested.

"It doesn't change anything. We did have Corel software but we dumped it.
I don't know if we had clip art. But I never saw Christ on computer.

"To believers it proves that the image on the rock is an accurate depiction
of Christ or that the guy who drew this (the clip art figure) was having
some sort of religious experience when he drew it.

"But then again how many pictures of Jesus look similar to the one on the
rock.

"I would love to know what printer we were supposed to put it through to
get the image off computer on to the rock."

Asked whether the Beverley find was a prank, Mr Webbs's wife, Elaine, said:
"We definitely wouldn't do it for a joke, I'll swear on the Bible."

...

[For the curious, I scanned the rock image and placed it at
 http://www.cs.curtin.edu.au/~architec/jesus.html
 - Phil]

© 1995 Peter Langston