Holloway: "God Does Not Build In Straight Lines."

Roads...the "Nazca lines" that get referred to in the film, when Prometheus is coming in for a landing, he points at them. but they can see them from space, and satallite imagery. And nature doesn't create in straight lines, "man" does. -IMO

I think he is implying that they have found what they were looking for. They found a planet with intelligent life, maybe a civilization that aided in human evolution, proof that our "god" is not a religious figure, but an advanced species.

He doesn't say "why" .... He's declaring that "god doesn't build in straight lines" ..... He's just pointing out where to land because it's obviously not a natural formation he's referring to....

I think he is implying that they have found what they were looking for. They found a planet with intelligent life, maybe a civilization that aided in human evolution, proof that our "god" is not a religious figure, but an advanced species.

Ok looks like I am not gone like I siad I would be come May 1st... Too addicted to this site. Let me try to explain. Holloway is by no means shooting down god, nor is he being disrespectful. But what many refer to as "God's creations" rarely if at all display straight lines. All that is natural tends to be either curved or angular stragley enough. Straight lines has over history been a sign of civilization, meaning intelligent mortal life has or does exist nearby. We tend to use straight lines for everything. Look at your homes, most of your furnishings, roads etc. All containing and displaying straight lines. While some may say that man is God's creation, and therefor any creation of man's is God's as well. And that is spiritually true, but straight lines still point out intelligent sentient civilization. I hope that helps!

It's a paraphrasing of a pretty well-known scientific trope: "There are no straight lines in nature." He's just replacing nature with god in this expression. It's a pretty interesting topic if you Google it. It basically refers to the idea that linearity is a human construct and this generally appears to be truthy on a macro-level. Casual observation mostly confirms the lack of straight lines in nature, but there are some pretty telling exceptions like crystal structures and particle emissions. In general what he means by this is, "Look, straight lines! There must be some intelligence behind it!" Of course this, like I said, tends to more or less be truthy, with exceptions. Here on Earth some examples of natural straight lines that have been mistaken for man-made artifacts include the Yonaguni Monument, the Giant's causeway, and the stairs on Old Rag Mountain.

There are no true straight lines in Nature - where Nature is, in this interpretation, nothing more than the instrument of God, [[i]our[/i] God, not the Aliens or SJ's, etc. etc]. Mankind invented straight lines. Holloway is saying that, (as there are no straight lines in Nature), where straight lines do appear, they must be the result of, and evidence of, some kind of Intelligence and Technology - and if not Mankind's, someone else's.

Roads...the "Nazca lines" that get referred to in the film, when Prometheus is coming in for a landing, he points at them. but they can see them from space, and satallite imagery. And nature doesn't create in straight lines, "man" does. -IMO

i was just joining in.....lol

It's an interesting turn of a phrase, that's for sure, with a number of possible implications.......including that whoever thay are, they aren't [i]off-the-charts[/i] advanced. That's good writing.

"Is not a map, an invitation" well it's not a road or a straight line, it's a runway, a space port.

To anyone even thinking on watching Prometheus, may I suggest the following: Put on your thinking caps ladies and gents way before stepping into the cinema or follow it trough with two or more helpings of multiple viewings of the movie cause I'm sure it will be built on layers upon layers.

[img]http://www.fernlifecenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/curled-fern-frond.jpg[/img] [img]http://tezini.com/assets/2012/02/tumblr_lg2kt5K68E1qe2ha5o1_500.jpg[/img]

When looking for ancient structures with ground penetrating radar or magnetometers we can look for evidence of straight lines and right angles in the data that bounces back. We can actually find evidence of buried habitation sites relatively quickly. As others noted: perfectly straight lines, rectangles, etc. don't occur in nature, so we can take it as evidence of some sort of culture, or possibly a civilization. It could require a sophisticated level of knowledge to keep things perfectly squared/straight, as well as to build temples that would require high levels of coordination and a substantial amount of resources. It's almost a cultural preference of humans as a whole that developed over time. Or an aesthetic preference that shows that we were starting to make our ancient cities look nice. I believe Holloway's making an archaeological inference that these beings are more similar to us than the idea of the Gods that Shaw is seeking. In a way, this is an example of him holding different views than her. He's already out to debunk some of her notions like Scully in X-files, and he's noticing things that add to his own interpretation. He thinks these beings were a lot like us. In the end, they'll both be so very wrong, much like how Mulder's at least partially wrong about the mythological being too.

I think in the basis of this movie he is implying that this confirms his theory in that we was created by a Race who we maybe called Gods and thus not created by some guy who looks like Santa Claus with a Magic Wand.