Earlier models were useful and accurate enough, for awhile. Then, in response to inconsistencies with the evidence, an accurate description of the system was eventually generated. Nonetheless, we do our best with the level of information generated by our rational search for understanding and our mistakes. We don't know it all, but that doesn't invalidate the learning process or the knowledge gained. Life is a process, not god-like perfection.
Correct answers require experience and experience invariably involves incorrect answers.
Mystical explanations, although now shown to be incorrect, were an attempt to understand and explain. If one reads the history of religious ideas, it becomes obvious that many of the great thinkers of the religious past were insightful and pondered questions of the greatest difficulty. They cannot be fairly judged out of context. They often wandered down erroneous paths and took destructive actions, but they sought explanations, attempted to structure human society, and even had some valid ideas. The same things can also be said of science.