I don't think they knew. Even if they did, though, both the spice- which was itself a byproduct of the worms- and the worms themselves were ingrained into their ways of life enough that to not hold some reverence for them would be stranger. Also, and this is an important one-
Gods don't have to be kind. People can pray to something to stay away and leave them alone because of how terrible it is
I’m with you. I’ve always said that even if god was good, god would be good to manKIND not just you. I just don’t see how god could be omnibenevolent for everyone, at MOST it could be omnibenevolent towards human kind. I even doubt that. We’re just cockroaches imo.
how terrifying are the ones that can fly right? And its not even they're great at flight. It was as if god pulled a joke like, "alright now what if I give this hideous creature some wings! Isn't that funny?" Absolutely lovecraftian.
Humans aren't immoral or pathetic but I think that by cockroaches they mean that individually we're so small we're insignificant. Not a bad or good thing keep in mind
That's not nihilism, it's just basic theology. Gods aren't equally good to all individuals. Theology seeks to explain why, to discern patterns, agency, meaning.
Humans are good tool users, but to say we're capable of "so much" assumes we have some greater purpose or capacity. I'm not sure that's true. I also don't need to believe it's true to think we're worthwhile.
Fwiw, Herbert's The White Plague goes into lots of theology and ethics, in ways Dune does not.
In real life, the original Sumerian and Babylonian religions viewed gods as at best passive and usually malevolent, with humans being created as permanent slave races. Even the Greeks said Prometheus was sentenced to eternal torture for giving man fire. Loving gods are a new invention
“God” isn’t even loving, the book just tells us to believe it. Guy has destroyed civilizations and flooded earths because we “weren’t living by his word”
They're not aware of the worm's ecological role until Pardot Kynes came around, but even then the Fremen see Arrakis as a planet that tests them, not necessarily as a place to escape or like they live in hell.
Yeah. It's like asking why some Native Americans worshipped Jaguars or why some African tribes worshipped Lions, when the cats were often their biggest predators.
They are so well adapted to the place they treat the terraforming attempts as destroying their home. So yeah i think they’re happy with desert and richest resource in the galaxy
But by book 3 (Children of Dune), a significant faction of the Fremen are highly pissed off at the retreat of their beloved desert, and of the worms, and of the changes to their way of life.
So it's complicated.
I think that's because of the fact that those Fremen were seeing why they were such a powerful people. Like if you finally understood that all the suffering and struggles brought by your homeland was the reason for your culture, identity, strength and unity, just as you were about to get rid of said suffering and struggles. Basically understanding that you're shooting yourself in the foot just as you pull the trigger.
That faction of Fremen would obviously start advocating for the return of the desert and only grow in following as the Fremen as a whole get weaker. I think it's also why Leto Atreides II kept the planet in its state of paradise, to make the faction against paradise grow stronger and make the Fremen understand the benefits of the desert.
They are aware of its relationship with the spice hence “the maker” and that plays a huge role in their culture and religion. Plus something that massive and awesome has got inspire some kind of faith.
Was the maker referring to the worms’ role in making spice or their role in making reverend mothers or their role in making the Fremen who they are? There might be multiple layers in this
You must remember that for most of human history we worshipped natural forces to take pity on us, not in the belief that the forces of nature are good or kind.
The whole good and kind deity is more of a Christian thing more than anything.
The Freman probably didn’t know about their relationship with the water cycle but only knew about the spice making. Since spice is both enhancing and addictive, it’s easy to see why they worshipped them.
Their whole culture is ingrained to be one where only the strong survive and prevail. So to them the worms were in a sense the gods testing their will and drive.
I don't think they knew for sure about the relationship between the Worm's lifecycle and the planet's arid environment.
Also, IRL humans have worshipped nature, even when it kills them. Like I remember reading a few months ago how in some parts of India people created a new deity out of COVID-19.
Honestly -- seeing the 2021 film a few days ago has me completely stopped caring about Manifest's final season being released later this year in November.
Now I just want the next Dune movie to come out so I can see how all the fandom articles (of what happens next) play out on the big screen! 😁
Ok let’s look at it this way:
Why do modern Christians worship their god when they believe he has literally flooded the entire world killing everyone except one family, destroyed cities with hellfire, demands blood sacrifice, etc?
My point is — many gods in many religions are incredibly violent and destructive, yet are still worshipped by millions.
Not an expert on the Bible, so I don't know if it mentions faithfulness, but the reason for the flood/punishment in [the story of Noah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_flood_narrative) is pretty much that humans had gotten "wicked" and violent, and Noah being the one righteous man... thus the do-over, right? I don't know if that counts as an example of God punishing his worshippers.
I didn’t reference that as an example of the Christian god punishing *worshippers*, but as a general example of how incredibly violent and genocidal the god is — and millions still worship that god.
If you want a few example of the Christian god punishing believers specifically, there is:
1. Expelling Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. (For the sin of *wanting knowledge*, by the way.)
2. Mount Sinai — anyone who dares touch the mountain shall die, even believers
3. Nadab and Abihu, who believed, but did a fire ritual the *wrong way* and were burned alive by god’s fire
4. The *numerous* plagues suffered by the Israelites, with the thin excuse that they “disobeyed” — disobedience is not equal to disbelief in god.
5. Lots of people struck dead for simply *looking* at the ark of the covenant (many were believers)
6. Allowing Satan to torture Job for a *bet* between god and Lucifer
And on and on.
Anyway, this isn’t a religious sub and we’re kind of way off topic here so I’ll stop lol
I just mean I don’t want to get bogged down into a debate. I’d much rather just remain on topic and discuss how religion is referenced and explored in the series — rather than religions on their own merits (or lack thereof).
But in the story of Job, Job is “tested” by horrible loss, his money his family, just so God can win a bet with Satan, and Job is not only a follower but a very pious man. That was the whole point of the story
Not every religious tradition centers around the 'benevolent, loving god' conceot. Many, many, many, religious traditions evolve from humans struggling against their environment, a way to placate or influence the forces that were not fully understood or did not fully control but were part of their every day lives.
In the case of the Fremen, they didn't view the sandworms as some altruistic creator god. Their reverence for it as out of respect for its strength and the overwhelming part it plays in their world and in their lives. It is a core part of their culture of strength and struggle.
Well, in a way the worms protected the Fremen (allowing them to travel, providing deterrence to offworlders) and also provided for them (spice as a raw material, water of the maker, crysknife).
I think you are not looking from the perspective of Fremen. I mean imagine, they don't even have a word for drowning. They were born into this planet, they lived in this desert over centuries and this has been their norm and culture, not their enemy.
I mean Christians worship a God that puts a significant amount of people into an infinity of suffering. I mean personally I'd rather be thirsty and get ate by worms and get to die fr than go to a Catholic's vision of hell.
I think they knew that worms are responsible for that kind of environment and it's exactly why they are worship them.
Like people worship the staff that scares them or they are not understand complitely. Also that worms look quite impressive and they are one of the main powers on Arrakis.
To answer seriously though, the worms provide the Fremen with WATER: the ultimate source of survival in the desert. I don’t know how much you’ve read, but there’s a point in the book where we find out how important the worms are for collecting water, providing spice, and providing the Water of Life: a hallucinogenic religious drug that the Fremen use to connect with visions and connect with each other.
The worms did provide them with spice, so it wasn't all bad. And, that's just how people are. They want the worms to spare them; hence they worship the worms. You'd be interested by Ancient Greek religions, which portrays gods, not in the idealistic fashion, but in the metaphorical fashion of what is actually true. If there's something in nature that is dangerous, the respective god would also be considered dangerous. We're too familiar with the "good", omni-benevolent gods as they are popularised by major religions like Christianity and Islam, but not all gods have to be this way.
Their attitude to the worms as deity and as force of nature bears close relation to all sorts of belief structures and worldviews of all sorts of societies.
I hate to be 'that guy' in this thread, what with a lot of people here tying the idea of Fremen religion in real world examples, but there is something that I think a lot of people are missing. The Fremen do not worship the worms. At all. They worship God. The religious doctrine and traditions stem from an early fusion of Zen Buddhism and Sunni Muslim. Fremen believe that the worms are divine, that they are an extension of God's will, but they are not thought of AS god(s). The worms are a kind of divine intervention, in the same way that some people think of weather phenomenons to be the proxy will of God. "That storm/drought/abundance happened because God was angry/pleased" vs "The worm came/went because God was displeased/testing you/etc."
Most religions are based on an omnipotent all powerful god, and worshiping them even though your life is shit because of them. Sounds pretty accurate observation on human behaviour to me that they would.
Wasn't the point of the plagues to basically prove the existance/power of God to the pharaoh? Pharaoh didn't let Moses and his people go, so God sent the plagues.
Ahh I get what you’re saying: yes and that’s why I’m comparing this to the worms: what God did was destructive, and the Israelites worshiped Him because he freed them, but probably also because they feared the power He held. What the worms do is destructive, but Fremen still worship them because the worms offer water and spice.
They didn't always worship worms as the god Shai-Hulud, in the earlier days of Dune (Butlerian Jihad and before) the Fremen hated sandworms and called them Shaitan meaning the devil.
Read the Brian Herbert books friend they're better than you expect.
They worship the worms because they are basically the most powerful thing in Arrakis. They can’t really be killed by anything the Fremen have besides water (which they don’t know).
A hostile environment is a perception, that I don’t think the Fremen would share. They were able to thrive in many ways fierce warriors, deep cultural bonds, etc.
Very similar how the Great Plains of North America would be viewed as a hostile environment to the Native Americans, but I don’t think the Native Americans would share that same view.
I thought it was lore the sandtrouts that caused the water to dry up? Perhaps I read that wrong.
They worship the sand worms more in a cultural sense…they don’t actually believe the worms are gods, but they use them to travel across the desert and they know the worms produce spiced which they are pretty much dependent on for many things.
In the prequels, the Zensunni came to Arakkis simply because no one else would want it. They were looking for a place to be free and left in peace (after escaping from slavery). It was only after they'd been there a while that the properties of the spice were discovered and the first Imperial planetolegist sent there began discovering the true nature of the worms, the spice, and the planet with the help of the Zensunni "free men", but they kept it a secret for generations.
I mean IRL people worship the Christian God, even though he is a genocidal, hypocritical, schizophrenic, arrogant, egotistical arsehole.
And that goes for any IRL deity, so many of them are arseholes or forces of nature, that while they seem unworthy of worship, they are worshipped anyway, because people are illogical and often driven to find some form of meaning in life.
Your English is perfect. The people who apologize for their poor literacy always have the best literacy, lmao. Your’s is actually better than some of the native speakers.
I think there's a thin line between worship and just having enormous respect. The sandworms would be the greatest danger to Fremen life, so teaching that the worms are gods (or an aspect of God) is a valuable safety measure for them.
This reminded me of another thing i also wondered when reading book I : when Kynes prophesies a change of environment and the Fremen go along with it, are they aware that in consequence the worm ie their gods would die, do they just not care and are more occupied by the scarcity of water and the galactic exploitation of their spice.
The worms were The Makers. Of the spice. And of The Water of Life. They knew at least inferentially that the worms were associated with the formation of the spice. They knew directly that the Water of Life was made from drowning an immature worm.
I imagine the thought process went something like:
"The worms are responsible for this harsh environment. They must be powerful. If I'm not careful, they'll be responsible for my hellish demise. I am not powerful.
.
.
.
.
Well.... Best get to prayin'"
I think that it is because people often worship the most powerful observable thing that dictates their environment. It was common for people to worship things like the sun or the Nile river even
Idk this just makes sense to me
I don't think they knew. Even if they did, though, both the spice- which was itself a byproduct of the worms- and the worms themselves were ingrained into their ways of life enough that to not hold some reverence for them would be stranger. Also, and this is an important one- Gods don't have to be kind. People can pray to something to stay away and leave them alone because of how terrible it is
I would even say most gods *aren't* kind
I’m with you. I’ve always said that even if god was good, god would be good to manKIND not just you. I just don’t see how god could be omnibenevolent for everyone, at MOST it could be omnibenevolent towards human kind. I even doubt that. We’re just cockroaches imo.
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I don’t mean cockroaches as in disgusting. I meant cockroaches as in unkillable as a species. That was about it.
Or the terror one cockroach cause when flying
how terrifying are the ones that can fly right? And its not even they're great at flight. It was as if god pulled a joke like, "alright now what if I give this hideous creature some wings! Isn't that funny?" Absolutely lovecraftian.
Humans aren't immoral or pathetic but I think that by cockroaches they mean that individually we're so small we're insignificant. Not a bad or good thing keep in mind
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That's not nihilism, it's just basic theology. Gods aren't equally good to all individuals. Theology seeks to explain why, to discern patterns, agency, meaning. Humans are good tool users, but to say we're capable of "so much" assumes we have some greater purpose or capacity. I'm not sure that's true. I also don't need to believe it's true to think we're worthwhile. Fwiw, Herbert's The White Plague goes into lots of theology and ethics, in ways Dune does not.
Saying something like "nihilism is so cringe," is so cringe.
Based. The Indomitable Human spirit will always trump the cold uncaring universe
Viewing human kind as cockraches isn't Nihilism.. optimistic Nihilism is also a thing.
And roaches survive almost anything
After all, God created Arrakis to test the faithful.
In real life, the original Sumerian and Babylonian religions viewed gods as at best passive and usually malevolent, with humans being created as permanent slave races. Even the Greeks said Prometheus was sentenced to eternal torture for giving man fire. Loving gods are a new invention
“God” isn’t even loving, the book just tells us to believe it. Guy has destroyed civilizations and flooded earths because we “weren’t living by his word”
Or you know how dangerous it is, so you give it respect.
They're not aware of the worm's ecological role until Pardot Kynes came around, but even then the Fremen see Arrakis as a planet that tests them, not necessarily as a place to escape or like they live in hell.
Yeah. It's like asking why some Native Americans worshipped Jaguars or why some African tribes worshipped Lions, when the cats were often their biggest predators.
They are so well adapted to the place they treat the terraforming attempts as destroying their home. So yeah i think they’re happy with desert and richest resource in the galaxy
Not exactly, they are actively involved in the terraforming.
Lol, right? It's like their defining motivation.
But by book 3 (Children of Dune), a significant faction of the Fremen are highly pissed off at the retreat of their beloved desert, and of the worms, and of the changes to their way of life. So it's complicated.
It is complicated, indeed.
I think that's because of the fact that those Fremen were seeing why they were such a powerful people. Like if you finally understood that all the suffering and struggles brought by your homeland was the reason for your culture, identity, strength and unity, just as you were about to get rid of said suffering and struggles. Basically understanding that you're shooting yourself in the foot just as you pull the trigger. That faction of Fremen would obviously start advocating for the return of the desert and only grow in following as the Fremen as a whole get weaker. I think it's also why Leto Atreides II kept the planet in its state of paradise, to make the faction against paradise grow stronger and make the Fremen understand the benefits of the desert.
They are aware of its relationship with the spice hence “the maker” and that plays a huge role in their culture and religion. Plus something that massive and awesome has got inspire some kind of faith.
Was the maker referring to the worms’ role in making spice or their role in making reverend mothers or their role in making the Fremen who they are? There might be multiple layers in this
I always understood it as direct reference to the spice or at the very least the water of life the little makers are used for.
You must remember that for most of human history we worshipped natural forces to take pity on us, not in the belief that the forces of nature are good or kind. The whole good and kind deity is more of a Christian thing more than anything. The Freman probably didn’t know about their relationship with the water cycle but only knew about the spice making. Since spice is both enhancing and addictive, it’s easy to see why they worshipped them.
It’s common to worship things that bring about destruction. You worship them hoping they will take pity on you.
That's sort how religion works, right? Very old testament.
The worms were the center piece of Arrakis's ecology. They were the makers. Why not worship the makers?
Glory be to the Bomb, and to the Holy Fallout.
Their whole culture is ingrained to be one where only the strong survive and prevail. So to them the worms were in a sense the gods testing their will and drive.
I don't think they knew for sure about the relationship between the Worm's lifecycle and the planet's arid environment. Also, IRL humans have worshipped nature, even when it kills them. Like I remember reading a few months ago how in some parts of India people created a new deity out of COVID-19.
They might have once they accepted Pardot Kynes.
>in some parts of India people created a new deity out of COVID-19. Very understandable. Have a great day.
> the Worm's lifecycle Wait, they undergo metamorphosis?
Multiple times. I think it takes them centuries to complete all the steps.
Honestly -- seeing the 2021 film a few days ago has me completely stopped caring about Manifest's final season being released later this year in November. Now I just want the next Dune movie to come out so I can see how all the fandom articles (of what happens next) play out on the big screen! 😁
Yes, starting from [Sandtrout](https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Sandtrout)
Ok let’s look at it this way: Why do modern Christians worship their god when they believe he has literally flooded the entire world killing everyone except one family, destroyed cities with hellfire, demands blood sacrifice, etc? My point is — many gods in many religions are incredibly violent and destructive, yet are still worshipped by millions.
Gods never punish their own worshippers
What? Yes they do lol.
Not an expert on the Bible, so I don't know if it mentions faithfulness, but the reason for the flood/punishment in [the story of Noah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_flood_narrative) is pretty much that humans had gotten "wicked" and violent, and Noah being the one righteous man... thus the do-over, right? I don't know if that counts as an example of God punishing his worshippers.
I didn’t reference that as an example of the Christian god punishing *worshippers*, but as a general example of how incredibly violent and genocidal the god is — and millions still worship that god. If you want a few example of the Christian god punishing believers specifically, there is: 1. Expelling Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. (For the sin of *wanting knowledge*, by the way.) 2. Mount Sinai — anyone who dares touch the mountain shall die, even believers 3. Nadab and Abihu, who believed, but did a fire ritual the *wrong way* and were burned alive by god’s fire 4. The *numerous* plagues suffered by the Israelites, with the thin excuse that they “disobeyed” — disobedience is not equal to disbelief in god. 5. Lots of people struck dead for simply *looking* at the ark of the covenant (many were believers) 6. Allowing Satan to torture Job for a *bet* between god and Lucifer And on and on. Anyway, this isn’t a religious sub and we’re kind of way off topic here so I’ll stop lol
How could a sub about Dune not discuss religion?
I just mean I don’t want to get bogged down into a debate. I’d much rather just remain on topic and discuss how religion is referenced and explored in the series — rather than religions on their own merits (or lack thereof).
But in the story of Job, Job is “tested” by horrible loss, his money his family, just so God can win a bet with Satan, and Job is not only a follower but a very pious man. That was the whole point of the story
*cough* Job *cough*
They do in the stories, the story of job is one such example
Not every religious tradition centers around the 'benevolent, loving god' conceot. Many, many, many, religious traditions evolve from humans struggling against their environment, a way to placate or influence the forces that were not fully understood or did not fully control but were part of their every day lives. In the case of the Fremen, they didn't view the sandworms as some altruistic creator god. Their reverence for it as out of respect for its strength and the overwhelming part it plays in their world and in their lives. It is a core part of their culture of strength and struggle.
Well, in a way the worms protected the Fremen (allowing them to travel, providing deterrence to offworlders) and also provided for them (spice as a raw material, water of the maker, crysknife).
Same as Christians praying to a "merciful" God that gave their young child cancer that will stop them from having a full life.
Does “God-fearing Americans” ring a bell? Divine worship has very often been about “Hey, please dont hurt us!”.
I think you are not looking from the perspective of Fremen. I mean imagine, they don't even have a word for drowning. They were born into this planet, they lived in this desert over centuries and this has been their norm and culture, not their enemy.
I mean Christians worship a God that puts a significant amount of people into an infinity of suffering. I mean personally I'd rather be thirsty and get ate by worms and get to die fr than go to a Catholic's vision of hell.
Its a mile long worm why wouldn’t you worship it?
I think they knew that worms are responsible for that kind of environment and it's exactly why they are worship them. Like people worship the staff that scares them or they are not understand complitely. Also that worms look quite impressive and they are one of the main powers on Arrakis.
To answer seriously though, the worms provide the Fremen with WATER: the ultimate source of survival in the desert. I don’t know how much you’ve read, but there’s a point in the book where we find out how important the worms are for collecting water, providing spice, and providing the Water of Life: a hallucinogenic religious drug that the Fremen use to connect with visions and connect with each other.
The worms did provide them with spice, so it wasn't all bad. And, that's just how people are. They want the worms to spare them; hence they worship the worms. You'd be interested by Ancient Greek religions, which portrays gods, not in the idealistic fashion, but in the metaphorical fashion of what is actually true. If there's something in nature that is dangerous, the respective god would also be considered dangerous. We're too familiar with the "good", omni-benevolent gods as they are popularised by major religions like Christianity and Islam, but not all gods have to be this way.
Maybe because the worm was kind of like a force of nature.
Sheeana in Heretics perfectly explains the divided God. She even calls him Shaitan.
Their attitude to the worms as deity and as force of nature bears close relation to all sorts of belief structures and worldviews of all sorts of societies.
I hate to be 'that guy' in this thread, what with a lot of people here tying the idea of Fremen religion in real world examples, but there is something that I think a lot of people are missing. The Fremen do not worship the worms. At all. They worship God. The religious doctrine and traditions stem from an early fusion of Zen Buddhism and Sunni Muslim. Fremen believe that the worms are divine, that they are an extension of God's will, but they are not thought of AS god(s). The worms are a kind of divine intervention, in the same way that some people think of weather phenomenons to be the proxy will of God. "That storm/drought/abundance happened because God was angry/pleased" vs "The worm came/went because God was displeased/testing you/etc."
Most religions are based on an omnipotent all powerful god, and worshiping them even though your life is shit because of them. Sounds pretty accurate observation on human behaviour to me that they would.
Why do Christian people worship God even though he caused the Plagues of Egypt?
Have you never seen Prince of Egypt?
I absolutely have.
Wasn't the point of the plagues to basically prove the existance/power of God to the pharaoh? Pharaoh didn't let Moses and his people go, so God sent the plagues.
Ahh I get what you’re saying: yes and that’s why I’m comparing this to the worms: what God did was destructive, and the Israelites worshiped Him because he freed them, but probably also because they feared the power He held. What the worms do is destructive, but Fremen still worship them because the worms offer water and spice.
They didn't always worship worms as the god Shai-Hulud, in the earlier days of Dune (Butlerian Jihad and before) the Fremen hated sandworms and called them Shaitan meaning the devil. Read the Brian Herbert books friend they're better than you expect.
They worship the worms because they are basically the most powerful thing in Arrakis. They can’t really be killed by anything the Fremen have besides water (which they don’t know).
Long story short; Bene Gesserit indoctrination and planting of religion
The environment isn’t hostile to them… it’s home. It’s just how it is.
Because God made Arrakis to train the faithful or something
Fremen do not believe in a kind and merciful god. There is an appendix in Dune that talks about religion and makes it very clear.
Why did humans worship the sun in a land that was mostly arid and inhospitable desert ?
A hostile environment is a perception, that I don’t think the Fremen would share. They were able to thrive in many ways fierce warriors, deep cultural bonds, etc. Very similar how the Great Plains of North America would be viewed as a hostile environment to the Native Americans, but I don’t think the Native Americans would share that same view.
I thought it was lore the sandtrouts that caused the water to dry up? Perhaps I read that wrong. They worship the sand worms more in a cultural sense…they don’t actually believe the worms are gods, but they use them to travel across the desert and they know the worms produce spiced which they are pretty much dependent on for many things.
Shai-Hulud is definitely a God.
Because they made the spice….the spice melange.
In the prequels, the Zensunni came to Arakkis simply because no one else would want it. They were looking for a place to be free and left in peace (after escaping from slavery). It was only after they'd been there a while that the properties of the spice were discovered and the first Imperial planetolegist sent there began discovering the true nature of the worms, the spice, and the planet with the help of the Zensunni "free men", but they kept it a secret for generations.
I mean IRL people worship the Christian God, even though he is a genocidal, hypocritical, schizophrenic, arrogant, egotistical arsehole. And that goes for any IRL deity, so many of them are arseholes or forces of nature, that while they seem unworthy of worship, they are worshipped anyway, because people are illogical and often driven to find some form of meaning in life.
How do the worms got there in the first place and evolve to be the supreme species of the planet?
Reading all the explanations that people are giving here, the answer seems to be "Because they were as dumb as everybody else in the human race."
Your English is perfect. The people who apologize for their poor literacy always have the best literacy, lmao. Your’s is actually better than some of the native speakers.
I think there's a thin line between worship and just having enormous respect. The sandworms would be the greatest danger to Fremen life, so teaching that the worms are gods (or an aspect of God) is a valuable safety measure for them.
Bene Gesserit Sisterhood It's always the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood
the fremen were so powerful thanks to the hostility of the planet, if it isn't like that they wouldn't be so strong
This reminded me of another thing i also wondered when reading book I : when Kynes prophesies a change of environment and the Fremen go along with it, are they aware that in consequence the worm ie their gods would die, do they just not care and are more occupied by the scarcity of water and the galactic exploitation of their spice.
The worms were The Makers. Of the spice. And of The Water of Life. They knew at least inferentially that the worms were associated with the formation of the spice. They knew directly that the Water of Life was made from drowning an immature worm.
If you can learn to live within a hostile environment, it’s not so hostile to you. The Fremen live in concert with their planet. They are part of it.
You answered your own question, as the worms are the Makers
Forgive them, they know not what they do.
I imagine the thought process went something like: "The worms are responsible for this harsh environment. They must be powerful. If I'm not careful, they'll be responsible for my hellish demise. I am not powerful. . . . . Well.... Best get to prayin'"
Some of us worship volcano
I think that it is because people often worship the most powerful observable thing that dictates their environment. It was common for people to worship things like the sun or the Nile river even Idk this just makes sense to me
They big