Thinking question. Not meant to spark a religious debate. This isn't about being pro or anti religion, this is a discussion on how people view themselves in relation to theism.
So let's pretend that we don't know anything about eskimos. We don't know their culture or religion; the only thing we know about these specific eskimos in this hypothetical is that they live in a very snowy land, and they've lived there all their lives. Let's not even think of them as eskimos, as to remove any notions that you might already have of them. Just think of them as a random tribe of people, disconnected from the modern world, who live and have always lived in a snowy snowy land.
So firstly, it can be safe to assume that these people have at some point developed religious beliefs (since most if not all existing cultures around the world have gone through belief systems). Without any technology or modernization, they would develop their own god/s. Since they live in snow land, their god would undoubtedly be related to snow.
The biggest problem these people would have would be the cold. The cold would make it harder to live, harder to catch food, harder to do anything. The cold, the snow, the blizzards, all of that is their worst enemy; but since it's also the only thing they know and the greatest power that they know, and if we go back to context and remember that most/all cultures have their own "gods", then the god these people would make would be the main source of their calamities, wouldn't it?
So why would it be their god?
But the other path they could've taken is believing in an entity that stops the snow. Maybe sunlight, when the blizzards clear and the sun is brighter, they might believe in a sun god. But, in this hypothetical, they live very high up north, so their bad times outweigh their good times. They have more snow than sun, which means they'd be praying to an inadequate god, a god who's weak, a god the snow usually defeats.
So why would it be their god?
These are the two options. In this situation, do the people believe in a strong, mighty Snow God who usually gives them hardship and only raises his hand for mercy for a short while every time, or do the people believe in a weak God Who Stops the Snow? What does that say about our psychology if you believe that we would rather pray to a weak god who can't help us most of the time, or if we'd rather pray to a strong god who chooses not to help us most of the time? Are we submissive by nature or not?
And how in turn does that change the culture? If they believed in the Snow God, would they be a more humble people, and if they believed in the God Who Stops the Snow, would they be more aggressive?
And the final question, one you shouldn't answer in this thread but just to yourself... how does it compare to what you believe in?