The universe is noisy and confusing, complex enough to make predictions difficult. Human intelligence and intuition facilitate a basic understanding of some of the activities of the world around us. And they do so well enough to make basic sense of events at the macro space and time scales of the limited perspectives of individuals and small groups.
The natural philosophers of human prehistory and early history were mostly limited to common sense rationalization and guess and check. The limitations of these methods, especially for things that are just too big or too complex, are readily apparent in the prevalence and influence of superstition and magical thinking.