Ask a polytheist

[gangleri2001]

For what it's worth, what you described is pretty unlike most Christian ideas of the afterlife with which I'm familiar.

Ok. You're the expert in christianity, not me.

So if I'm placed on one side during Ragnarok but just don't do anything with my sword/bow/gun/whatever, what happens?

I dunno LOL

Ok, new seriously. I really doubt that in a struggle between the forces of nature you'll be just there watching.

Are there any elements of monotheism you find especially improbable?

I do find plenty of things improable of montheism. I could say the idea of monotheism itself but that would lead to a pages long discussion that would lead us anywhere but to the conclusion that we just have different start points and that's it.

For example, I find highly improbable that a god would choose to be omniscient. I know that omniscience is not necessarily associated with monotheism but, in the monotheism we all know something about it is so. I mean, why would a god choose to know every and single aspect of his work? Why wouldn't he choose to ignore and force himself to learn? Odin does so. He could be sitting on the Hlídskjalf all day long and get reports of Huginn and Muninn, for it's the status in which he is omniscience, but instead of this he chooses to ignore and makes himself have to learn about the world, sometimes at high cost. That's a god acting in an exemplar way, not YHV just sitting there waiting for the Final Judgement. Odin's way of acting truly enlightens people.

 

[Berzerker]

No, they don't have a common origin. What they have is a common influence: siberian shamanism. Siberian shamanism influenced peoples all across Eurasia and those who later would become the amerincians back in the late Stone Age. Besides, our cosmologies are based in observation of the natural world. For example, a pregnancy takes 9 moons, so that explains easily why is this number so important in all these cosmologies without having to look for more complex (but not less true) explainations.

Meso-americans didn't have mo(o)nths and none of these cultures incorporating the #9 into their cosmologies mentioned pregnancy - they all referred to the sky, or something in the sky - other worlds. Some even depicted these 9 "worlds", the Enuma Elish is not only quite detailed it matches up with the Incan and Nazcan depictions of "Heaven" or heavens. All 3 describe or depict these 9 worlds in 2 groups of 4 and 5.

As for diffusion from Siberia, the cosmologies are far too complex and specific to have such a distant origin...Besides, people around the world wouldn't need Siberian shaman to tell them pregnancies last ~9 months...

What do you mean? I don't understand this. Please reformulate your question.

The Roman Jupiter = Greek Zeus = Indo-Aryan Deus Pater = = = = Didn't germanic peoples equate their gods with earlier deities from other cultures? Its not that important, I'm just curious about Loki's origin.

I don't understand what do you mean with older counterpart. As for Jormungand, it's the snake of the world, the limit between the known and the unknown. Jormungand is the only thing that can be defeated by Thor, the mighty and main god of the Karls. So I'd say that, in an abstract way, Jormungand is mankind's struggle against the horizon that doesn't let us look beyond it.

How about the Midgard Serpent? I can wiki it, but I was wondering about your insights or traditions. I saw a documentary maybe 2 decades ago on Nova called "In Search of the Lost Red Paint People" about a maritime archaic deep sea fishing culture (~5-8k BC) ringing the N Atlantic (remnants of an ice age culture using the ice sheet to travel the Atlantic?) possibly giving rise to the megalith culture. They showed a flat stone with a drawing on it, a star with a serpent forming a semi-circle and a stick man between them.