People are debating whether the Asgardians in Marvel Comics and the MCU believe in gods above themselves.
Redditor abdulaziz_bature spurred the discussion in r/marvelstudios by writing, “In a trailer scene [presumably from Thor: Love and Thunder] when valkyrie says, ‘Oh God….’ whom was she referring to ? ‘Cause we know she hated Odin, which begs the question; do Asgardians worship the royal family in marvel ? Or are they atheists ?”
Those questions triggered a wide range of responses, some of which cover obscure Marvel lore. For instance, the top comment from scrawnymcskinny, reads, “No. They acknowledge a higher power, but do not pray to that power,” accompanied by a link to a page from 2000’s Thor Annual #1 in which an almighty being is mentioned.
OP abdulaziz_bature then asked if that almighty being is the Asgardians’ god, to which scrawnymcskinny replied:
A different Redditor, harkness2001, referenced another time that an Asgardian said, “Oh, my god!” but chalked it up to something the Asgardians picked up from humans that has nothing to do with belief in god(s).
Another bit of relevant lore was uncovered by Lokipath, who linked to a group of Marvel Comics gods called Those Who Sit Above in Shadow and wrote that the Asgardians “believe in them but they aren’t worshipped.”
Back to the atheism accusation, JaDe_X105 got definitional on all our asses:
User ranger8913 stated that the phrase “Oh, my god” has no bearing on the speaker’s theological convictions, given that “atheists use the term.”
In summation, Asgardians are likely not atheists; rather, they’re probably deists, as they believe in gods above themselves but don’t care too much about them.
Whether you agree or disagree on Asgardian theology, feel free to contribute to the discussion here.
