Sleipner's Mother
an excerpt

Darren's outburst as they ran down the alley was certainly true enough. Earlier that evening, Alex attended a church meeting concerning intelligence in design titled, "Young Earth, Old Faith." Alex didn't belong to the church and he certainly didn't expect to agree with anything he heard. He was hoping to see why otherwise intelligent people clung so stubbornly to what he viewed as outright superstition. If the meeting got too boring he could always ask irritating questions such as, "So, the Grand Canyon was carved out in a few thousand years?" As he walked into the meeting room and was greeted by very polite, friendly, and enthusiastic people, bar brawls were the furthest thing from his mind.
The meeting got off to a slow and predictable start. A cheerful young man with good hair and straight teeth who introduced himself as 'Chad' stood up in front of everyone and thanked people for coming. Next he led the obligatory prayer. After the prayer was over, Alex was ready to get down to business which is to bad because Chad had other ideas. "Ladies and gentlemen. In these troubling times, what is our best defense?"
"Rational thought?" Alex replied to himself. "A calm, sensible plan of action based on reason?"
"Faith!" Chad enthusiastically answered. "As Christians, our faith is our first, last, and only line of defense!" Alex groaned internally and tried his best to pay attention as Chad talked about how faith in Jesus was the be all and end of all of solutions. Alex was very pleased with himself in not saying that faith must be at an all time high since a disease like SARS captured the headlines without killing more than several hundred people while the the bubonic plague which some might say struck in a godlier time killed off a third of Europe and the tuburculosis epidemic in the early 20th century killed millions.
It was about the time that Chad was emoting, "...and the scientists who have no more than numbers and know nothing of Jesus would try to take our faith away from us," that a man stood up and shouted, "Hear, Hear!" The speaker stopped and stared at him, as did everyone else in the room. He was tall and muscular and had long blond hair that was braided down his back and a beard that suggested careful but infrequent trimming. Even though he was just wearing a wool sweater and jeans, he looked like someone who would have a black leather jacket and leather chaps in case he got the urge to hop on his Harley and cruise off into the sunset. He didn't look like The Mighty Thor from the comic books, but only because he wasn't dressed for it.
"We have let the scientists push us around long enough! They think they know something about life but they know nothing of living." This got a cheer from the crowd. "Who do they think they are dictating what we are allowed to believe?" Scattered affirmations and agreements. "In these troubled and godless times we need to work together to protect our faith." Several people shouted out, "Amen!" The stranger continued, "That is why I need your help to put Truth In Astronomy, the belief that Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve made the Earth from the body of the ice giant, Ymir, the mountains from his bones and the vault of the heavens from the giants skull, into the schools where it belongs!" Dead silence.
Eventually a well groomed and well mannered woman stood up and hesitantly asked, "you don't... believe... in Jesus?"
The stranger cheerfully responded, "Me? Nah, I belong to the Odinata. We carry on the tradition of the Scandinavians that worshipped Odin." More stunned silence. "Look, if you help us establish Truth In Astronomy we'll help you push Intelligence in Design. We understand that you're a much larger organization than we are so we don't expect you to work that hard for us but don't you think that many voices speaking out against the scientific establishm-"
Chad was unhappy about losing control and cut off the stranger to get it back. "Why, in Heavens name, do you think that we would want to be associated with you and your pagan myths?"
Unphased, the man responded, "The same reason I want to be associated with you and I said why earlier. We must work together to protect faith." Uncomfortable silence. "... Or were all the agreements and 'amens' I heard a joke to play on the new guy?"
An anonymous voice shouted out, "Your fairy tales are stupid! We know there's no big skull in the sky or mountains made from bones!"
Darren spun around and pointed an accusatory finger in the direction that he thought the voice came from and said, "Who told you that? It was the scientists, wasn't it?" In a sad voice he continued with, "Well if you're ready to let the scientists tell you what to believe I can see that the battle for faith is already lost in this church." He calmly left the room and at the door he turned around and said, "You're friend who wasn't brave enough to stand up to slander me is wrong. Our fairy tales are fantastic," and with that he left the room leaving everyone muttering to each other and trying to decide what to make of this brash visitor. It took Chad five minutes to get control of the room again but by that time Alex had already left the meeting on the grounds that talking to the stranger would be more interesting than anything that Chad had to say.