In American Gods by Neil Gaiman Shadow has just been released from jail. A man who goes by the name Mr. Wednesday shows up from nowhere to hire Shadow as his errand boy/body guard. Wednesday is later revealed to be the norse god Odin, whose goal is to gather the gods of old mythology to stand united against their common foe: the gods of modern America. The lack of believers has made the old gods lose their power (Anubis, the egyptian god of afterlife works at a funeral agency and Afrodite, the greek god of love and beauty, makes her living as a prostitute, for example) whereas the modern gods of America, such as Internet, Celebrity and Media has gained a lot of power.
Throughout the book the modern gods are pictured as bloodthirsty, evil and egoistic. The old gods have a few skeletons in the closet, but is generally pictured as warm hearted. Is that the world we live in today? Did humans lose all sense of morality when the religious beliefs faded?
As an engineer I can help to feel that the use of gods is obsolete. 1000 years ago, when the vikings couldn’t understand thunder, they made up a god to explain it. Sure, nobody believs in Thor any more. But still, in the year of 2010, religious people uses their respective God to explain things they don’t understand. Did you know that what we in Sweden (and most of Europe) call Force majure (you know, your iPhone getting flooded by hot lava isn’t covered in the warranty) is actually called an Act of God in such a developed country as United States. I believe, or rather believe that I know, that scientists will be able to explain everything. It’s just a matter of time. The more time spent researching, the less we need to believe in gods to explain things to us.
Before I get smited by religious fanatics I need to tell you that I dig one thing about all those made-up stories: The karma/heaven-hell/afterlife-bit. It doesn’t really matter if there really exists a Valhalla or not. As long as people believe it does they will act and behave better as people. My grandma keeps telling me that people were a lot nicer when she was young. I don’t know, maybe the lack of beliefs do affect us more than we think.
Why can’t we just merge the best parts from each age? We shouldn’t need gods to act with moral. I say we drop the old gods, keep the ideals and embrace the modern gods as they deserve!
(If you’re into fiction, this book is definitely worth a read. Also, the real-time strategy game Age of Mythology combines ancient beliefs with the mordenity of video games in an awesome way. Play it!)