Why Is Idolatry a Sin to Abrahamic Religions?

[syo]

I've never gotten why it is reprehensible to worship a physical object as an image/manifestation of God or gods.

physical objects are creations of god. god is separate from his creations. so creations cannot be god, they aren't god.

 

[idav]

As the title says. I've never gotten why it is reprehensible to worship a physical object as an image/manifestation of God or gods. While this is a debate, i am not denouncing people who see idolatry as a sin. I would only like to understand why

I would have posted what @SalixIncendium mentioned, the reason idolatry would be seen as a sin is it’s against the first commandment. Specifically the part that says not to have “graven images of things of heaven”. I have heard apologetics similar to what @Enoch07 and @Sunstone mentioned which is to say that the image, like that of the Christian cross for example, is not seen as God and the image or statue is not specifically worshipped. Though the commandment in Exodus 23:3-6 goes even further than that. It does also say in those verses not to worship images but that’s different from the specific verse I’m referring to. Why would that be a commandment, that’s also within the commandment itself, because God is said to be jealous and of course that gets into whole other issues about God and why anything is a commandment to begin with.

 

[LuisDantas]

Thanks for this thread, @Terese .

The concept of idolatry confuses me. Hopefully this thead will make it a bit clearer.

 

[Jainarayan]

Under a traditional Christian view, all pagan worship is idolatrous as God alone is entitled to worship as God. Isaiah 45:5

That is true; however, we don't worship that God or feel bound by his rules as his followers are, or even believe he is supreme.

 

[Jainarayan]

Hindus are not idolatrous in so far as they understand their "idols" are not deities in themselves. It is a misunderstanding to claim that they are idolatrous.

Correct. In fact, images, murtis, physical forms, idols, are actually sanctioned by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 12.5: For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied. Purport can be found here Bhagavad Gita 12.5

Tl;dr... Being sensory beings, it is difficult for humans to connect with the unmanifest Supreme. We need to use our senses to experience anything, including God.

 

[Jainarayan]

All these gods and goddesses are also emphasized in Hinduism to be the manifesations of the One Brahman.

sarvam khalvidam brahma - "all this is verily Brahman", even stone or wood statues.

 

[Jainarayan]

physical objects are creations of god. god is separate from his creations. so creations cannot be god, they aren't god.

That's only one philosophy. Pantheism says the opposite. Most non-Abrahamic, i.e. "pagan" religions are pan(en)theistic: the universe is equivalent to God and vice versa, or the universe is part of God, with God transcendent and immanent.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

As the title says. I've never gotten why it is reprehensible to worship a physical object as an image/manifestation of God or gods. While this is a debate, i am not denouncing people who see idolatry as a sin. I would only like to understand why

Because the religion is trying to perpetuate the group by discouraging members from activities that might lead them to switch to a different group.

Edit: I see it as "my way or the highway:" it tries to maintain loyalty to the group by discouraging members from dividing their loyalty between that group and some other group.

 

[james bond]

I would have posted what @SalixIncendium mentioned, the reason idolatry would be seen as a sin is it’s against the first commandment. Specifically the part that says not to have “graven images of things of heaven”. I have heard apologetics similar to what @Enoch07 and @Sunstone mentioned which is to say that the image, like that of the Christian cross for example, is not seen as God and the image or statue is not specifically worshipped. Though the commandment in Exodus 23:3-6 goes even further than that. It does also say in those verses not to worship images but that’s different from the specific verse I’m referring to. Why would that be a commandment, that’s also within the commandment itself, because God is said to be jealous and of course that gets into whole other issues about God and why anything is a commandment to begin with.

>>I: Though the commandment in Exodus 23:3-6 goes even further than that. It does also say in those verses not to worship images but that’s different from the specific verse I’m referring to. Why would that be a commandment, that’s also within the commandment itself, because God is said to be jealous and of course that gets into whole other issues about God and why anything is a commandment to begin with.<<

It's the first commandment because Jesus said so in his answer to a Pharisee attorney who asked him what's the most important commandment. Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment."

I think you mean which is worth discussing. “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me” Exodus 20:3-5.

There are other reasons for the first commandment which has to do with worshiping idols, false images and false gods. It has to do with matters of the heart such as pride, greed and love of possessions. This is a warning that could lead to rebellion against God and has something to do with it.

For example, rich attorney Phil loved his status which his job, wealth and luxurious possessions gave him. He especially took pride in his custom painted Lamborghini and bragged about it to his friends and acquaintainces. One day, Phil got into an accident and unfortunately his Lambo was totaled and he lost his left arm in the accident. When the doctors revived him, they had to tell him what happened to his arm and that it was too damaged to re-attach. The first words from Phil was "Oh my God. I had my Rolex on that arm."

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

@Terese - it's occurred to me that other Jewish commandments are focused on a shepherding lifestyle, and I think this might be a similar case.

Pigs are incompatible with a nomadic lifestyle: they don't graze like sheep, horses, cattle, etc. Pigs need pens, so societies with pigs are rooted to a fixed spot.

I think the prohibition on idolatry comes from a similar thought process: if you worship a statue of your god, say - as other civilizations around the ancient Hebrews did - then you're going to want to carry that statue with you. This is also incompatible with a nomadic lifestyle. I think this is at the root of the commandment.

I think it's very plausible that a nomadic group who considered themselves "God's chosen people" would also think that there was something special about their lifestyle... or that this group who thought they were chosen and their neighbours weren't would look around and ask themselves "what distinguishes us from all these non-chosen people?"

 

[Jainarayan]

"what distinguishes us from all these non-chosen people?"

I can't recall the specific verses, but I seem to remember verses where the Israelites were commanded to not be like their neighbors. I'm sure one of our Jewish friends here, familiar with the Tanakh, could verify (or refute).

 

[Vouthon]

@Terese idolatry is considered to be a sinful practice in Abrahamic faiths, because worship should be rightly owed only to someone greater than ourselves and not to someone or something intrinsically equal to us in nature; even less something which is actually inferior to us.

As it is written in the Book of Wisdom (13:17-19; 15:16-17), from the Catholic/Orthodox Old Testament:

"When he prays about possessions and his marriage and children,
he is not ashamed to address a lifeless thing.
For health he appeals to a thing that is weak;
for life he prays to a thing that is dead;
for aid he entreats a thing that is utterly inexperienced;
for a prosperous journey, a thing that cannot take a step;
for money-making and work and success with his hands
he asks strength of a thing whose hands have no strength.

For they thought that all their heathen idols were gods,
though these have neither the use of their eyes to see with,
nor nostrils with which to draw breath,
nor ears with which to hear,
nor fingers to feel with,
and their feet are of no use for walking.

For a human being made them,
and one whose spirit is borrowed formed them;
for none can form gods that are like themselves.
People are mortal, and what they make with lawless hands is lifeless;
for they are better than the objects they worship,
since they have life, but the idols never had. "
​

When human beings started personifying objects constructed out of wood, stone clay or precious metal with divine identities and powers, regarding them to be worthy of worship, they began a distressing trend - not in malice but accidentally - that would end in the worship of other human beings, their equals by nature now exalted to divine status (i.e. god-kings and priest-kings like the Roman emperors, Chinese emperors etc.).

The same Book of Wisdom explains how this, in the view of its sacred author, developed over time:

"The invention of them [idols] was the corruption of life;
for they did not exist from the beginning,
nor will they last for ever.
For through human vanity they entered the world,
and therefore their speedy end has been planned.

For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement,
made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him;
he now honoured as a god what was once a dead human being,
and handed on to his dependants secret rites and initiations.
Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law,
and at the command of monarchs carved images were worshipped.
When people could not honour monarchs in their presence, since they lived at a distance,
they imagined their appearance far away,
and made a visible image of the king whom they honoured,
so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.

Then the ambition of the artisan impelled
even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.
For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler,
skilfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,
and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work,
now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before,
they had honoured as a human being.
And this became a hidden trap for humankind,
because people, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority,
bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared."​

Human beings, in the Abrahamic mindset, are of far greater worth than any object we can fashion with our own hands. Moreover we were all created equal in the image of God. For this reason we shouldn't worship anything lesser than ourselves - such as lifeless works of art - or which God had intended to share equal status with us, such as our fellow human beings.

All that said, the Catholic tradition has always encouraged the use by believers of sacred statues/icons/images representing the Lord Jesus or the Mother of God, or the saints. From an exterior vantage point, our devotional practices don't look a whole lot dissimilar from what Hindus do in relation to Vishnu, or Shakti or Krishna etc. We are the least doctrinaire among Abrahamic religions about that sort of thing (i.e. we have no problem about depicting God in images), although we do not regard praying before a statue - using it as an aid to visualize the entity or person we are actually praying to, or indeed worshiping in the case of Jesus - to be "idolatrous" in any way, because we aren't actually worshiping the wood or stone but the Divine Person it represents (in the case of the Blessed Virgin or a saint, we are merely praying to them/honouring them but never offering worship since they are human beings like us, however glorified and beatified).

 

[ajay0]

I think this distinction in Judaism that prohibits polytheism and idol worship sternly maybe due to distinguish it from egyptian polytheism and idol worship.

The sects in Hinduism with respect to bhakti yoga, which practice idol worship however adhere to the Dvaitan and Vishistadvaitan philosophies which are monotheistic and pantheistic/qualifed monism. It is not polytheistic which is a popular misconception perpetuated ignorantly.

The monotheistic Arya Samaj, Brahma Samaj and Sikhism worship Om itself as the monotheistic God. The monotheistic Prajapita Brahmakumaris worship Shiva as an incorporeal point of light, and consider Shiva the same as Jehovah, Allah and Ahura Mazda.

 

[Akivah]

I think it's very plausible that a nomadic group who considered themselves "God's chosen people" would also think that there was something special about their lifestyle... or that this group who thought they were chosen and their neighbours weren't would look around and ask themselves "what distinguishes us from all these non-chosen people?"

G-d chose us to be His priests.

 

[Akivah]

I think this distinction in Judaism that prohibits polytheism and idol worship sternly maybe due to distinguish it from egyptian polytheism and idol worship.

Possibly. One could formulate any number of rationalizations or explanations. All we know for sure is that G-d told us not to worship idols...and told us multiple times. We can see from the bronze snake episode that humans are pre-disposed as finite beings to worship finite objects. An infinite, eternal, non-physical G-d, that is everywhere and everytime, is hard to wrap your head around.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

G-d chose us to be His priests.

... chose you over the people living in towns with pigpens and religious statues. It's understandable that an ancient Jew would notice this correlation and presume that it's important.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

An infinite, eternal, non-physical G-d, that is everywhere and everytime, is hard to wrap your head around.

... and is a lot more convenient if you're carrying everything you own on your back, on a pack animal, or in a cart.

 

[ajay0]

Possibly. One could formulate any number of rationalizations or explanations. All we know for sure is that G-d told us not to worship idols...and told us multiple times. We can see from the bronze snake episode that humans are pre-disposed as finite beings to worship finite objects. An infinite, eternal, non-physical G-d, that is everywhere and everytime, is hard to wrap your head around.

Each path is a way to the supreme.

You can see that there is great diversity in Bhakti yoga in Hinduism itself, with some preferring monotheism/monism without idol worship, and some with it.

And Bhakti yoga ( Yoga of emotion ) is not the only path in Hinduism. There is Raja Yoga ( yoga of mysticism), Karma Yoga (yoga of action) and Jnana Yoga ( Yoga of intellect) which are all valid paths to lead a spiritual life.

 

[ajay0]

I would also like to state a parallel between Brahma - Saraswati in Hinduism and Abraham-Sara in Judaism.

Perhaps there is some ancient connection for this similarity.

The Prajapita Brahmakumaris consider Brahma - Saraswati as the greatest priest and priestess of their monotheistic incorporeal God Shiva.

 

[Akivah]

I would also like to state a parallel between Brahma - Saraswati in Hinduism and Abraham-Sara in Judaism.

Perhaps there is some ancient connection for this similarity.

The Prajapita Brahmakumaris consider Brahma - Saraswati as the greatest priest and priestess of their monotheistic incorporeal God Shiva.

For sure, there are multiple ways to have a relationship with G-d. Judaism is just for the Jews. Everyone else can worship as they like.

There must be some Judaism - Hinduism connection. Every time I take one of those 'what religion are you' questionnaires, after Judaism my second option is always Hinduism.