Thor and Our Limited Understanding

image from hollywoodreporter.com

          I’ll warn you right now. I could be “spoiling” several movies and TV shows for you in this post.

          In the recent movie adaptation of the Marvel Comics superhero Thor, the “god of thunder” has his power and title stripped by his king father and is cast out to Earth (specifically, New Mexico). The first three humans he makes contact with turn out to be underrated, brilliant scientists. 

          As they try to find out who he is, how he got there, and what was that strange, shiny funnel cloud that seemed to transport him, more and more evidence seemed to point toward what Thor himself claimed: that he was Thor, the “god of thunder.” He arrived via “rainbow bridge,” and was looking for his hammer, Mjölnir. One scientist, Jane Foster (later to be Thor’s love interest) is starting to believe it. The other scientist, Erik Selvig, is very skeptical that the mythological stories he learned as a child could actually be true, so he brings a children’s book about Thor and Asgard to their next meeting and presents it to Jane. The conversation ensues . . .

Jane Foster: Where'd you find this? 

Erik Selvig: The chidren's section. I just wanted to show you how silly his story was. 

Jane Foster: But you're the one who's always pushing me to chase down every possibility, every alternative. 

Erik Selvig: I'm talking about science, not magic. 

Jane Foster: Well, "magic's just science we don't understand yet." Arthur C. Clarke. 

Erik Selvig: Who wrote science-fiction. 

Jane Foster: A precursor to science fact! 

Erik Selvig: In some cases, yeah. 

Jane Foster: Well, if there's an Einstein-Rosen bridge, then there's something on the other side. And advanced beings could have crossed it! 

Erik Selvig: Oh, Jane.

          As we interpret the world the around us and life as we’ve come to know it, are we chasing down every possibility and alternative? What about a higher power? What about God? Or is the existence of any higher power or advanced being somehow able to be validly deemed as a complete impossibility? 

          As an elder of my church recently suggested to me, sometimes it seems that there’s an underlying presupposition in Western society that humans have the capability and/or entitlement to ultimately understand and comprehend everything, with or without the belief in a higher power. We tend to compartmentalize religion and mythology from science, and even religious followers tend to think that the natural world and the supernatural world are two different worlds. 

          A silly example of this is the reception to the series finale of the hit TV drama Lost. Why was it criticized? Because the resolution of the story wasn’t enough. There were (mostly menial) questions unanswered: What happened to the big statue? Why were their polar bears on the island? Was the black smoke monster’s power based in failed experiments in dangerous applied science, or supernature? 

          Christians and followers of other religions are guilty of this subtle pride, too. In all endeavors of life, let’s make sure we don’t have too much optimism and faith in ourselves. There are things beyond us. As Christians, we may not completely understand or comprehend everything, even in eternity. We also believe in Someone beyond which there is nothing and no one.