How often do you make human sacrifices ? (unsuspecting strangers & your sons/daughters included)
Do you only make such sacrifices in times of hardship or do you make the annual ones too ?
And are there any particular sacred trees that you hang them from ?
Human sacrifices were never an usual practice in ancient times and since they are illegal these days we don't practice them anymore. But you seem to have a wrong perception of human sacrifices in our religion due to christian propaganda and your will of trolling this thread. Let me enlighten you.
The only account we have of a human sacrifice is Ibn Fadlan's. In his account Ibn Fadlan tells us that a slave girl volunteers in order to marry her master in the afterlife. Tacitus' account also tells us of women who volunteer to sacrifice themselves in order marry in the afterlife though he does not give us an example. We do also know that Swede kings did sacrifice male slaves at Uppsala every nine years. Why did they do so is, however, something we ignore though we may suppose that they also volunteered because we know that the back then elect kings did also volunteered to be sacrificed in times of hardship. So no, we didn't sacrifice unsuspecting strangers or our sons.
And finally you ask if they were hung in a tree just like Odin sacrificed himself. Well, no. According to all accounts (Ibn Fadlan's, Tacitus' and Adam of Bremen's) human sacrifices were buried.
So, to answer your question if we do practice human sacrifice I have to say that not anymore, but that this has been in a sense replaced by a sense of voluntary self-sacrifice following Odin's example that, in the most extreme circumstances, may mean a self-sacrifice to death.
How familiar are you with Marvel Comics' Thor and the various adaptations thereof? What are your thoughts on it? Do you approve of Idris Elba being cast as Heimdall?
I'm well aware of the Thor comics and movie but I've neither read nor watched them, so I cannot judge them. I know, however, that Heimdall was played by a black man, which doesn't bother me because the Rigsthula states pretty clearly that Heimdall is the father of all kinds of men. The racist faction of our religion (whose main characteristic is that they spend most of the time discussing things related to the jews and the nazis but almost never about our religion) did bother because he's a black man and because Heimdall is "the whitest god". If they, however, did study our religion instead of spending their time talking about the 3rd Reich they'd know that Heimdall is called the whitest god in reference to hail (see the rune
Haglaz, from Heimdall's aett).
Why couldn't the gods keep their own worship going for a while?
According to what I've been told by my godhi, they did and the amount of things which survived is astounding. I'm, however, not an expert in The Times of Darkness, so I can't tell you, I should ask him because he's the expert. But it's not like the gods need us to worship them in order to exist. Religion is something meant for us, not for them. My next answer will help you understand why.
What happens to Christians when we die?
Christians may go to Hellheim (not to be confused with your hell), Nastrond (the place where you're actually punished) or one of the many palaces in Asgard (Valhalla, Folkvangar, etc.) according to your acts and the decision of the Valkyries and the gods, which is taken according to the way you live and die. Your afterlife depends on the way you act, not your beliefs.
Does this mean that there's a universe ruled by a pantheon consisting of Optimus Prime, Ellen Ripley, Robocop, Eric Draven, Spock, Neo, Catwoman, Aslan, Kara Thrace, Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell's character in Wild Things), and Bill and Ted?
No. There're only 9 worlds (universes) in Yggdrasil (the whole of the multiverse) and these are alrady taken. So no, there's no world with all those gods.
Of all the possible religions to convert to, why would you choose a dead one?
Germanic neopaganism has been around for a long time, and that's excluding the small groups who kept practicing it during The Times of Darkness, so I wouldn't say it's a dead religion. An extremely minoritary one, but not a dead one. Besides, is not like I choose to believe it, I just feel I have to.
Also, what evidence convinced you that your religion is the one true religion, and all other pagan religions are bunk? Why is Heimdall more likely to exist than Osiris or Shiva?
You don't seem to be very familiar with a polytheistic mindset. We worship our gods but since there're plenty of gods we don't deny the existence of other gods. This mindset is what allowed the tacit freedom of religion of the ancient world.
None of them are any more likely than any other. The chances of any one religion, unsupported by evidence, of being correct is infinitesimally small, but there are obvious benefits of converting to a popular one.
G-Max already answered the second part of your statement better than I could.
Really? I never heard about this here...
We're an extremely minoritary religion, so when I say plenty I mean about 50, perhaps 100. My first contact with organizations of my religion was with Basque organizations so I think you can trust me in this matter.
The Norse gods are all aware they're fated to die at ragnarok. Why?
Because everything, including the gods, has a destiny. They are aware of their particular destiny because the volva told them in the
Völuspá. By knowing it they show us, who ignore it, to face our destiny with courage and the way they show us so is that, instead of stop eating Idunn's apples, they do keep eating them in order to keep themselves alive until Ragnarok.
I've heard of hipsters claiming of liking something before it was popular, not centuries after.
