Adi S asked Rick Riordan:

Hello! I love your books, but I have a question. In Magnus Chase, Thor mentions Jesus existing, which probably means every religion exists. But some religions actively say that all other religions don't exist, so how does that belief work? (Also I really, really like your books, thanks for making them!)

Rick Riordan Thanks for reading. The anecdote about Jesus and Thor comes from the 13th Century Icelandic Sagas. I didn't make it up. The idea of exclusive monotheism (no god exists but the god the 'correct' group believes is) is a fairly new phenomenon. Christianity (for the most part) and Islam take this stance, but even in Jewish scripture, a.k.a. the Old Testament, there was never a claim that other gods didn't exist. The focus was simply that the God of the Hebrews was supreme, and his people shouldn't be worshipping other lower beings like Baal, etc. This, at least, has been my reading of the various monotheistic scriptures. For most of history, humans have been polytheistic and syncretic, meaning they accepted that each people had their own set of gods, and that these gods were all real. It was just a question of which gods were stronger and worth sacrificing too. The Greek and Romans and many other ancient cultures had no problem adopting gods from outside their homelands if those gods became popular or were judged to be useful. Isis (Egyptian) was enormously popular in Rome, for instance. Long way of saying: Yes, to the Ancient Greek and Egyptian mind, and the Norse mind, I think it's safe to say that people believed all people's religions existed side by side. They might think other people's gods were weak and puny -- like Thor supposedly thought of Jesus -- but they didn't claim that no other pantheons existed.

flag