People, from the beginning up until relatively recently, lived with nature. In doing so they realized how weak and insignificant humans are, compared to many other animals and certainly to the natural forces of nature. I've said before, the only reason humans survived at all, is because nature usually moves pretty slowly. Anyway, knowing how vulnerable we are, would naturally lead to looking for help from any quarter, natural or supernatural.
More recently, humans have gotten pretty uppity, blowing mankind's importance all out of proportion to reality. Central heat/AC, we control our environment, and some claim the worlds environment. Food comes in an endless supply of pretty packages at the supermarket, making our pets think we're the greatest hunters, evah. All the work we do is comparatively easy, assisted by electricity or dead dinosaurs. Yes sir, top of the food chain, masters of the universe... gods? we are gods.
Notice the polls show the most religious people in the US are in rural areas. People
that who at least observe nature (other than on the weather channel), and many actually interact with nature. These people know how delicate, how puny, how insignificant, humans really are. These people
know, they can use help from any quarter... except the government.
