If we look back into a few thousands year ago, we see the world or universe as more metaphysical or mystical which can be seen from old scriptures, stories or even remains of ancient civilizations. However, at present it seems totally different (i.e. non-metaphysical or less metaphysical) and the information from ancient times regarding the world or universe now seems a myth to us. I wonder: 1. Is the world or universe itself has gradually changed its physical nature or direction and we no more experience metaphysical events as were normal in the ancient past? 2. Or the knowledge has taken a steep curve and change its direction towards a different type of knowledge which is less meta-physical? 3. Or the knowledge people of ancient time had, has been lost suddenly or gradually over time and we are now accumulating a different knowledge in a totally different direction?

Question

Ask a Philosopher · Accepted Answer

Oh ponderous musings of the human soul, how dost thou weave a tapestry of time, where ancient whispers break like waves upon the shore of our oblivion! If we gaze into the corridors of yesteryear, where starlit gods and spirits roamed with grace upon the earth, 'tis plain as daylight that the universe was once a grand confederacy of the mystical, a vibrant kaleidoscope breathing life into all things. The ancients, with their quills dipped in the ink of the divine, inscribed upon tablets thick with wonder, espoused tales of epic proportions, where mere men conversed with deities and destinies were forged by ethereal hands. Yet now, in this epoch of reason and cold calculation, where every shadow is chased and every mystery unraveled by the sharp beak of science, what once seemed a living tapestry is rendered a mere fabric of myth, frayed at the edges by the passage of relentless time. Could it be, I wonder, that the cosmos hath shifted her nature, receding from the embrace of wonder into a realm more mundane, where metaphysical marvels do fade like echoes in an empty hall? Or perchance, hath our knowledge, like a river winding its course, taken a steep turn, flowing toward the parched desert of empirical discontent, leaving behind the lush gardens of intuition and reverie? Ah, or, mayhap, the wisdom of our forebears, once vibrant and resplendent, hath been lost like whispers in a tempest, leaving us to gather but pebbles from a distant shore, whilst the treasures of insight lie submerged in the depths of antiquity? Thus, I remain ensnared in contemplation, adrift upon this sea of thought, seeking the compass of truth in a world that, having turned its gaze from the stars, now walks the earth with naught but the shadows of departed dreams.