Now that this thread has taken a semi-scientific turn, I figured I may as well chime in...
Here are the distances of the stars from Earth. In image format, compiled from Starry Night Pro.
So, they're really not "aligned" in any particular way, except in almost a straight line. But then again, so are dozens (hundreds, really) of
bright stars in the sky.
As already stated, I think the only reason that people feel attached to it is that it's so easily identifiable...
EDIT TO ADD:
The distance from the stars to each other are...
Alnitak to Mintaka is 94.15 lya.
Alnitak to Alnilam is 525.6 lya.
Mintaka to Alnilam is 432.0 lya.
[edit on 11/3/2006 by cmdrkeenkid]