Climate and Religion: From Meteorological Theology to Environmental Ethics Introduction: Nature as a Message The connection between climate and religious beliefs is one of the oldest and most fundamental. Climate phenomena — rain, drought, thunder, flood, and the change of seasons — were direct manifestations of divine will for ancient humans. Thus, religion formed as a system of interpretation and management of relationships with powerful natural forces on which survival depended. Climate is not just a backdrop, but an active participant in the sacred dialogue, shaping pantheons, rituals, ethics, and eschatology. Climate as the Architect of Pantheons and Mythology Climate conditions directly determined which gods were worshipped and how they were depicted. Agricultural civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Canaan): In regions where life depended on river flooding or timely rains, gods of fertility, water, and the dying/reviving nature became central. Sumerian Dumuzi, Egyptian Osiris, Phoenician Baal — all of them died (symbolizing drought or winter) and were resurrected (with the coming of rain or flooding). Their consorts (Inanna/Ishtar, Isis, Anat) as goddesses of the earth and fertility sought and returned them, reflecting the desperate hope for the cyclicality of nature. Rituals, often orgiastic, were meant to magically stimulate the fertility of the land. Desert civilizations (Ancient Greece, Iran): Here, where water was scarce and thunderstorms were powerful and terrifying phenomena, the supreme god was a thunder god: Greek Zeus, Indo-European Perun, Hittite Teshub. He controlled rain as a favor and thunder as wrath. Nomadic peoples of the steppes: For them, in the open, boundless space and dependence on the condition of pastures, a monotheistic or genocentric cult of the Sky as the supreme, often impersonal deity (Tengri among Turks and Mongols) developed. Climate here shaped not a god-«manager» of weather, but an abstract supreme beginning, embodying order and ... Read more