Odin's Ways Are Not Our Ways

God's ways are not our ways, and I suppose that should be just as true of Norse gods. We want to box Norse gods in, make them conform to our own standards of goodness and logic. They are not tame gods, and they are not proto-21st century Americans, either. We must acknowledge them in all their wildness, and in all their wackiness.

This insight came to me while I was reading about the super-hero "The Mighty Thor" by Stan Lee in Journey into Mystery 90. (Hey, I needed a break from the dissertation, okay?) In the comics, Thor lives on earth and is the god of thunder. His father is the chief god, Odin. In this particular issue, Thor is surprised that some of his human friends and acquaintances are acting strangely. Thor remembers some advice his father Odin once gave him: "When something puzzles you, always seek the simplest, most obvious explanation ... no matter how impossible it may seem!" Now, that piece of advice sounds awfully conformable to human logic and wisdom, doesn't it? I mean, Occam's Razor says that, when someone is "given two equally valid explanations for a phenomenon, one should embrace the less complicated formulation." And Sherlock Holmes says, ""if you have eliminated all of the impossibilities, the only remaining possibility must be the correct one, no matter how implausible!" How refreshing it is to have a deity that thinks like human smart people do!

But then, in a masterful stroke, Stan Lee reminds us that Thor, even when seeming to begin with human logic, turns that logic on its head, because he has special godlike reasoning powers. Thor reflects, "The simplest, most obvious explanation! If people are not acting like themselves, then they must not be themselves! They must be imposters!" See, I wouldn't have gone for that. I'd have suggested maybe they'd just eaten a bit of undigested mustard, maybe had a bad day or something. Even though I knew Thor was a god, I was still skeptical of his idea, but you know what? In the end, it turned out he was right after all, and his so-called "friends" were really just extra-terrestrial imposters. Boy, did I have egg on my face. Still, it taught me that sometimes we just have to learn to trust that which is beyond our understanding. Like comic books.

While I'm at it, I figure I might as well quote this catchy aphorism uttered by Mr. Fantastic in Fantastic Four #65: "Wives should be kissed--and not heard!" A super-intelligent super-hero cannot be wrong!