Since Rudolph Otto's Idea of the Holy , the term has been used to signify the presence of that which is beyond the natural order, the metaphysical presence that inspires fear and fascination. The Other cannot be signified directly since it does not belong to the natural order. The Super-natural must be mediated by the natural. A symbol, to follow theologian Paul Tillich's definition, is a concrete object making present an invisible Reality. The Modern Man denies the existence of the metaphysical.
Reality is a function of matter.
Symbols are like empty boxes. There is nothing for them to point toward. The Sacred is a pre-scientific hypothesis which has been falsified by natural science. Unfortunately, the loss of the metaphysical signaled the twilight of faith in the ideal as well as the divine, as Karl Marx was soon to prove. Symbols are dead.