PatrickLeo
Member
It is a form of 'idolatry' as per its definition.
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Idolatry in Islam
- Thread starter PatrickLeo
- Start date
It is a form of 'idolatry' as per its definition.
Trouble is, "religion" is a very ill-defined concept and it may well be that there is no useful consensus to be found anymore.
Many people, including quite a few supernaturalist dogmatists, treat it as a pejorative as a matter of course.
Others (myself included) see worth in the concept and attempt to treat it with respect. But it may be a lost cause now.
That is, frankly, a matter of perception as opposed to fact.
PatrickLeo
Member
Like Vampirism is literally a religion these days.
PatrickLeo
Member
Are facts objective?
PatrickLeo
Member
2 billion people of Planet Earth accusing the other 2 billion of idolatry. Christians blaming the muslims. Muslims blaming the christians. Jews blaming both muslims and christians.
Not a lost cause. What it probably requires is a restructure to basic public education systems in modernized countries. As it stands, the only way folks in the United States properly learn about peoples, cultures, and their ways of thought and life (aka, anthropology, sociology, religion, and philosophy) is going to college and happening to take a few courses in those areas. A few folks are academic-minded enough they can get a similar background through self-study, but I get the sense that's a distinct minority.
On the plus side, it doesn't even require much depth of study to dispel some of the rubbish nonsense I see coming out of some people's mouths about "religion" (as if that is some sort of single thing, right?). One would hope it would take an equally small amount of work to dispel nonsense ideas like "idolatry." Sadly, things often become more complicated as people's opinions on these things are frequently grounded in personal experience and feelings... which are slow to change and not persuaded by data.
It seems to me that the best way of dealing with that is by refusing to take it very seriously.
As I said, I perceive god-beliefs to be very, very personal a matter.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
Heaven forbid that it is metaphorical, eh? LOL. This strong atheist isn't too impressed with the OP.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
But it is not what it seems, therefore it is NOT idolatry. Nowhere has any Muslim ever indicated that god literally has a face that we can look upon. I'd be quite happy to be shown to be wrong on this, but it doesn't ring any bells with me. It is essentially a straw-man.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
Unfortunately, it's just not a very good question. There are much bigger fish to fry in Islamic theology. This is a minnow.
Akivah
Well-Known Member
Actually, just the Christians. Muslims are strictly monotheist.
Repox
Truth Seeker
You should ask those who wrote the New Testament. Oh, yes, they aren't alive. It is a long sorrowful story, mortal men, who relied on other mortal men who made up stories to explain unfathomable events, wrote what they thought to be God's truth. Will we ever know the real stories?
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Jeremiah Ames
Well-Known Member
Only my opinion here but
I don't believe Christians reverence anything on this earth. At least I don't.
But Catholics do seem to reverence the things you mentioned.
Jeremiah Ames
Well-Known Member
Worshipping something man made.
Examples: 1. If I prayed to a statue.
2. I play video games nearly every waking hour, excluding god from my life.
Jeremiah Ames
Well-Known Member
You have obviously never read the Old and New Testaments.
Jesus regularly quoted and discussed the OT with his Jewish followers, but did not create a new religion by using verses from the OT.
He always let his listeners know from where he was referring and did not mislead them to think it was fresh revelation from him.
Doesn't that mean that any theistic faith will be idolatric according to all other such faiths until and unless they agree that they do, in fact, worship the same god?
It does not look like a very useful concept.
Augustus
…
Adaptation and evolutions of cultural heritage is not 'plagiarism'. I've always found that line of reasoning particularly vacuous.