Year of our Lord

i think she's most likely referring to God and not the engineers, since shaw is a believer of God.

shaw is most definitely referring to "God", not the engineers, in her final transmission. There are several key pieces of dialogue in the film that underscore the fact that shaw does not believe the engineers to be gods. Shaw understands that the engineers created humanity, but that doesnt make them "God". The film makes it pretty clear that Shaw's faith is tested, but ultimately strengthened by the events that take place on LV 223. im baffled when i read reviews where people express that ridley scott is trying to deny God in prometheus (often these are negative reviews). Certainly one can interpret the film as a bit of an indictment of religion (at times), but deny or rebuke God, the film does not. Im not a religious person at all and i feel the film actually makes the case that faith and spirituality are integral facets of the human condition. But thats one of the great things about prometheus, the spiritual/religious undertones can be interpreted many different ways.

Do you think that Engineers think there are Gods that oversee anything and everything in their known world? From what I have seen in the movie the Engineers acted like humans if they were in the same situation.

the phrase "the year of our lord" comes from the medieval latin Anno Domini (as in A.D.) it used to be common to say when referrring to the date.

I agree that Shaw was referring to her God and not the Engineers, who she seems to have realized are not God(s), but were also creations of her God. Another interesting tidbit: scientists who are not Christian seem to use "Common Era (CE)" and "Before Common Era (BCE)" instead of AD and BC, which are dating systems where Christ's birth is the focal point. The CE/BCE notation has been adopted to be neutral or sensitive to non-Christians because it does not explicitly make use of religious titles for Jesus, such as "Christ" and Domina ("Lord"), which are used in the BC/AD notation, nor does it give implicit expression to the Christian creed that Jesus was the Christ. Saying all that to say, for Shaw to say "the Year of Our Lord" (aka AD) would appear to confirm her status as a believer in Christ, otherwise she might have used "2094 CE" to express the date.

"..Common Era (CE)" and "Before Common Era (BCE)" instead of AD and BC,.." THanks for clearinfg up why tyhe the dhange in dating notaions. I was raised in the old school and started to see the newer system in use,,but didn't undertand rhe background. Even with this explanation in mind it still seems like an older term, something from writings in the pre 20th Century. THis gives added weight to Shaw's comments and to me indcated she was a more of devout Christian then ever..or..she is being sarcastic now that she knows her God might be tied into an Engineer's experiment.

I think she meant a Christmas day. The main purpose of this event is to celebrate the birth of Jesus...the baby Jesus :) The Day of Our Lord.

@Indy John Since AD and CE essentially mean the same thing, use of CE is really a form of political correctness. The abbreviation CE was first used by Jewish academics, presumably to get Jesus out of the picture. Now, it is used in a neutral non-contentious way. Although I'm not a believer myself, I find this kind of Newspeak irritating and patronising. We have plenty of words in our history that have unusual origins, and we don't want to rub them out. One word I find particularly interesting is [i]woman[/i], which some feminists get angry about. They like to see words like chairwoman or chairperson used. But the funny bit is that woman is derived from old English [i]wif[/i] + [i]man[/i]. In other words, every woman today is a wife man! Unless, of course, you get real, and use the word in its commonly accepted sense (just like most people do with AD).

@ katerina ; Christmas day was when they arrived, It was on new years day at the end, and shaw states its the "Year of our Lord" She might be saying that the year ahead she'll meet her Lord, thats why Year of our Lord.