[godelski]

Stab in the dark here, but I would not be surprised if such a phrase is untraceable in origin due to long usage. There are many ancient stories where men battle with gods and they are analogous to fighting nature. Especially considering many gods are considered to be those that control nature and who's moods are characterized by it. We can even find references in the bible but I don't read Hebrew so idk if these are direct translations and not bothering to check changes from versioning. But I suspect that this phrase, in some form or another (battling with god, fighting god, etc), is rather old and not even unique to westerners. So I wouldn't be surprised if the phrase is older than language itself. But I'm not a linguist or historian and this is pure conjecture. Just someone who enjoys language and mythos as hobbies.