Final answer:
The ancient texts reflect a worldview where natural phenomena are deeply connected to the divine, with rivers and storms personified and revered. Cultures relied on and revered rivers, attributing supernatural causes to natural events and depicting gods or beings exercising control over these elements.
Step-by-step explanation:
The excerpts from various ancient texts point towards the significant role that supernatural beliefs and natural phenomena, such as rivers and storms, played in shaping the worldview of ancient cultures. The texts suggest a sense of awe and reverence towards these forces, which are often personified and associated with gods or supernatural beings. These narratives highlight the dependency of cultures on rivers for sustenance, and how the rivers' behavior was intertwined with the divine, reflecting on each culture's relationship with their environment and the superstitious attributions to natural events.
For instance, references to the gods in awe of a storm, or a deity causing an earthquake, as in Habakkuk 3:10, indicate a perception that higher powers directly influenced the natural world. Moreover, the transformation of a supernatural being into a rock or the obedience of wild beasts to a saintly figure both demonstrate how supernatural explanations were employed to justify or make sense of extraordinary natural occurrences. The reverence for rivers, seen as both a giver of life and a potential destroyer, is also evident in these accounts, particularly in the context of ancient river civilizations for which the river was central to their life and often deified.