(Jody Gray) This Blog Post contains information that, to me, reinforces the need for Separation of Church and State - “accompanied with violence” - “one man’s devotion was another man’s idolatry”... sometimes based on biblical scriptures, other times based on doctrine created by specific religious leaders…
The destruction of idols and images as icons of veneration is called iconoclasm, and this has long been accompanied with violence between religious groups… the presumption that icons of one’s own religious practices have meaningful symbolism, while another person’s different religious practices do not… “one man’s devotion was another man’s idolatry”
Intolerance. The accusations and presumption that all idols and images are devoid of symbolism, or that icons of one’s own religion are “true, healthy, uplifting, beautiful symbolism, mark of devotion, divine”, while of other person’s religion are “false, an illness, superstitious, grotesque madness, evil addiction, satanic and cause of all incivility” is more a matter of subjective personal interpretation, rather than objective impersonal truth. Allegation that idols only represent false gods, followed by violence and iconoclastic destruction, state Regina Schwartz and other scholars, is little more than religious intolerance. The philosopher David Hume in his Dialogue on Religion, wrote that pagan idolatry is premised on pluralism, tolerance and acceptance of diverse representations of the divine, while monotheism has been intolerant, attempted to destroy freedom of expression and has violently forced others to accept and worship their singular view of the divine.
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Idolatry [https://en.wikipedia.] literally means the worship of an “idol”, also known as a cult image, in the form of a physical image, such as a statue or icon. In Abrahamic religions, namely Christianity, Islam and Judaism, idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than God as if it were God… the “worship of false gods”... (in non-theistic forms) They are a means to focus one’s religious pursuits and worship…
The opposition to the use of any icon or image to represent ideas of reverence or worship is called aniconism. The destruction of idols and images as icons of veneration is called iconoclasm, and this has long been accompanied with violence between religious groups that forbid idol worship and those who have accepted icons, images and idols for worship. The definition of idolatry has been a contested topic within Abrahamic religions, with Muslims considering the Christian use of the cross as a symbol of Christ, and of Madonna (Mary) in some churches, as a form of idolatry.
The history of religions has been marked with accusations and denials of idolatry… the presumption that icons of one’s own religious practices have meaningful symbolism, while another person’s different religious practices do not.
Prehistoric and ancient civilizations. ...The ancient Egyptian civilization was polytheistic, with large cult images that were either animals or included animal parts. Ancient Greek civilization preferred human forms, with idealized proportions, for divine representation… The ancient philosophy and practices of the Greeks, thereafter Romans, were imbued with polytheistic idolatry… (Aristotle) an image is an appropriate mental intermediary that “bridges between the inner world of the mind and the outer world of material reality”, the image is a vehicle between sensation and reason. Idols are useful psychological catalysts, they reflect sense data and pre-existing inner feelings. They are neither the origins nor the destinations of thought but the intermediary in the human inner journey…
Abrahamic Religions. The Christian view of idolatry may generally be divided into two general categories: the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox view which accepts the use of religious images, and the views of many Protestant churches considerably restrict their use. However, many Protestants have used the image of the cross as a symbol.
Catholicism. The Roman and Catholic particularly the Orthodox Churches have traditionally defended the use of icons. The debate on what images signify and whether reverence with the help of icons in church is equivalent to idolatry has lasted for centuries, particularly from the 7th century until the Reformation in the 16th century. These debates have supported the inclusion of icons of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Apostles, the iconography expressed in stained glass, regional saints and other symbols of Christian faith. It has also supported the practices such as the Catholic mass, the reverential use of the bread and the wine as representations of Jesus’ body and blood, burning of candles before pictures, Christmas decorations and celebrations, and festive or memorial processions with statues of religious significance to Christianity.
St. John of Damascus… defended the use of icons and images, in direct response to the Byzantine iconoclasm that began widespread destruction of religious images in the 8th century, with support from emperor Leo III and continued by his successor Constantine V during a period of religious war with the invading Umayyads. “I venture to draw an image of the invisible God, not as invisible, but as having become visible for our sakes through flesh and blood”, “for remembrance either of wonder, or an honor, or dishonor, or good, or evil” and that a book is also a written image in another form. He defended the religious use of images based on the Christian doctrine of Jesus as an incarnation.
...the veneration of the tombs and statues of martyrs was common among early Christian communities… venerating an image of Christ does not terminate at the image itself -the material of the image is not the object of worship -rather it goes beyond the image, to the prototype.
Orthodox Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church has differentiated between latria and dulia. A latria is the veneration due God, and latria to anyone or anything other than God is doctrinally forbidden by the Orthodox Church; however dulia has been defined as veneration of religious images, statues or icons which is not only allowed but obligatory…
Veneration of icons through proskynesis was codified in 787 CE by the Seventh Ecumenical Council. This was triggered by the Byzantine Iconoclasm controversy that followed raging Christian-Islam wars and a period of iconoclasm in West Asia. The defense of images and the role of the Syrian scholar John of Damascus was pivotal during this period. The Eastern Orthodoxy sect of Christianity has ever since celebrated the use of icons and images…
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods, or demons, power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc.” The manufacture of images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Christian saints, along with prayers directed to these has been widespread among the Catholic faithful.
Protestantism. The idolatry debate has been one of the defining differences between Papal Catholicism and Anti-papal Protestantism… “one religious error larger than all others”. The sub-list of erring practices have included among other things Mariolatry or the worship of Virgin Mary as a form of idolatry, the Catholic mass, the invocation of saints, and the reverence expected for and expressed to Pope himself. The charges of idolatry against the Roman Catholics were leveled by a diverse group of Protestants, from the Church of England to John Calvin in Geneva.
Protestants did not abandon all icons and symbols of Christianity. They typically avoid the use of images, except the cross, in any context suggestive of veneration. The cross remained their central icon… “one man’s devotion was another man’s idolatry”. This was particularly true not only in the intra-Christian debate, states Eire, but also when soldiers of Catholic kings replaced “horrible Aztec idols” in the American colonies with “beautiful crosses and Mary idols”.
Protestants often accuse Catholics of idolatry, iconolatry, and even paganism for failing to “cleanse their faith” of the use of images; in the Protestant Reformation such language was common to all Protestants. In some cases, such as the Puritan groups denounced all forms of religious objects, whether in three-dimensional or two-dimensional form, including the Christian cross.
The body of Christ on the cross is an ancient symbol used within the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, in contrast with some Protestant groups, which use only a simple cross. In Judaism, the reverence to the icon of Christ in the form of cross has been seen as idolatry. However, some Jewish scholars disagree and consider Christianity to be based on Jewish belief and not truly idolatrous.
Islam. ...The Quran forbids idolatry… some verses mentioning the destruction of idols and violence against idolaters: Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful… The Islamic concept of idolatry extends beyond polytheism, and includes Christians and Jews as shirk and kufr. “They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. The Messiah (himself) said: O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Lo! Whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah, for him Allah hath forbidden paradise. His abode is the Fire. For evil-doers there will be no helpers.”
19th century Wahhabis regarded idolatry punishable with the death penalty, a practice that was “hitherto unknown” in Islam.
Within Islam, shirk is an unforgivable crime… In practice, especially among strict conservative interpretations of Islam, the term has been greatly extended and means deification of anyone or anything other than the singular God. It may be used very widely describe behavior that does not literally constitute worship, including use of images of sentient beings, building a structure over a grave, associating partners with God, giving his characteristics to others beside him, or not believing in his characteristics.
Judaism. prohibits any form of idolatry. According to its commandments, neither is worship of foreign gods in any form or through icons allowed, nor is idolatrous worship of the God of Israel permitted… idolatry in itself is not a fundamental sin, but the grave sin is the belief that God can be corporeal. In the Jewish belief, the only image of God is man, one who lives and thinks; God has no visible shape, and it is absurd to make or worship images; instead man must worship the invisible God alone.
Archaeological evidence. ...The direct material evidence… from the archaeological sites… suggests that the Jewish religious practices have been far more complex than what biblical polemics suggest. Judaism included images and cultic statues in the First Temple period, the Second Temple period, Late Antiquity (2nd to 8th century CE), and thereafter… The claimed rejection of idolatry because of monotheism found in Jewish literature and therefrom in biblical Christian literature, states Janowitz, has been unreal abstraction and flawed construction of the actual history. The material evidence of images, statues and figurines taken together with the textual description of Cherub and “wine standing for blood”, for example, suggests that symbolism, making religious images, icons and index has been integral part of Judaism. Every religion has some objects that represent the divine and stand for something in the mind of the faithful, and Judaism too has had its holy objects and symbols such as the Menorah.
Indian religions. ...While the Vedic literature of Hinduism is extensive… dated to have been composed over a period of centuries (1500 BCE to 200 BCE), there is no mention of temples or worship of cult images in them… no very early temples are yet been discovered in archaeological sites of ancient India that suggest the use of cult images. ...Idolatry developed among the Indian religions later.
...Indian thought denied even dogmatic idolatry of its scriptures. Everything has been left to challenge, arguments and enquiry… scripture is not authoritative…
Buddhism.
Hinduism. ...These traditions suggest that it is easier to dedicate time and focus on spirituality through anthropomorphic or non-anthropomorphic icons. The Bhagavad Gita -a Hindu scripture, in verse 12.5, states that only a few have the time and mind to ponder and fix on the unmanifested Absolute (abstract formless Brahman), and it is much easier to focus on qualities, virtues, aspects of a manifested representation of god, through one’s senses, emotions and heart, because the way human beings naturally are.
A Murti in Hinduism… is itself not god, it is an “image of god” and thus a symbol and representation… Thus a literal translation of Murti as idol is incorrect, when idol is understood as superstitious end in itself. Just like the photograph of a person is not the real person, a Murti is an image… not the real thing, but in both cases the image reminds of something of emotional and real value to the viewer…
...Hindus believe everything is worthy of worship as it contains divine energy… (Jody Gray) similar to Indigenous Americans who "worshiped" the sun, moon, trees, animals because they contained the divine energy". the Ultimate Supreme Principle (Brahman). (text, abridged): From the contemplation of images grows delight, from delight faith, from faith steadfast devotion, through such devotion arises that higher understanding that is the royal road to moksha. Without the guidance of images, the mind of the devotee may go astray and form wrong imaginations. Images dispel false imaginations… It is in the mind of Rishis (sages), who see and have the power of discerning the essence of all created things of manifested forms. They see their different characters, the divine and the demoniac, the creative and the destructive forces, in their eternal interplay. It is this vision of Rishis, of gigantic drama of cosmic powers in eternal conflict, which the Sthapakas (Silpins, murti and temple artists) drew the subject-matter for their work.
Jainism. Devotional idolatry has been a prevalent ancient practice in various Jaina sects… human gurus have been venerated with offerings, songs and Arati prayers. Like other major Indian religions, Jainism has premised its spiritual practices on the belief that “all knowledge is inevitably mediated by images” and human beings discover, learn and know what is to be known through “names, images and representations”...
Sikhism. ...Sikhs house their scripture and revere the Guru Granth Sahib as the final Guru of Sikhism. It is installed in Sikh Gurdwara (temple), many Sikhs bow or prostrate before it on entering the temple, and just like Rama or Krishna icons are cared for in some large Hindu temples, the Guru Granth Sahib is ritually installed every morning, and put to bed at night in many Gurdwaras.
Traditional religions.
Africa.
Americas.
Polynesia.
False god or intolerance. The accusations and presumption that all idols and images are devoid of symbolism, or that icons of one’s own religion are “true, healthy, uplifting, beautiful symbolism, mark of devotion, divine”, while of other person’s religion are “false, an illness, superstitious, grotesque madness, evil addiction, satanic and cause of all incivility” is more a matter of subjective personal interpretation, rather than objective impersonal truth. Allegation that idols only represent false gods, followed by violence and iconoclastic destruction, state Regina Schwartz and other scholars, is little more than religious intolerance. The philosopher David Hume in his Dialogue on Religion, wrote that pagan idolatry is premised on pluralism, tolerance and acceptance of diverse representations of the divine, while monotheism has been intolerant, attempted to destroy freedom of expression and has violently forced others to accept and worship their singular view of the divine.
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C.S. Lewis. The principal reason he believed in religion was because he believed himself to be wired to believe it, just as he believed human beings are wired to perceive inference (if ... then) and other mental logical phenomena as representing truths about the external world that can be learned from, rather than representing purely internal phenomena to be characterized as error. He chose to believe in his wiring for religious perception in the same way and for the same reasons that he chose to believe in his wiring for logic, choosing to use and rely on both as guides to learning about the world rather than regarding them as purely random in origin and discarding them. People continue to have faith in the phenomenon of logic, despite the fact that they sometimes make demonstrably mistaken inferences.
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*Wahhabism.
*Wahhabism [https://en.wikipedia.], named after an 18th century preacher and activist, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792]. He started a reform movement in the remote, sparsely populated region of Najd, advocating a purging of such widespread Sunni practices as the veneration of saints, the seeking of their intercession, and the visiting of their tombs, all of which were practiced all over the Islamic world, but which he considered idolatry (shirk), impurities and innovations in Islam (Bid’ah). Eventually he formed a pact with a local leader, Mahammad be Saud, offering political obedience and promising that protection and propagation of the Wahhabi movement meant “power and glory” and rule of “lands and men.”
The alliance between the followers of ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad bin Saud’s successors (the House of Saud) proved to be a durable one. The House of Saud continued to maintain its politico-religious alliance with the Wahhabi sect through the waxing and waning of its own political fortunes over the next 150 years, through to its eventual proclamation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, and then afterwards, on into modern times. Today Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab’s teachings are the official, state-sponsored form of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia. With the help of funding from Saudi petroleum exports (and other factors), the movement underwent “explosive growth” beginning in the 1970s and now has worldwide influence. The US State Department has estimated that over the past four decades the capital Riyadh has invested more than $10bn into charitable foundations in an attempt to replace mainstream Sunni Islam with the harsh intolerance of its Wahhabism.
The majority of mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims worldwide strongly disagree with the interpretation of Wahhabism, and many Muslims would denounce them as a faction or a “vile sect”. Islamic scholars… regularly denounce Wahhabism with terms such as “Satanic faith” -Wahhabism has been accused of being “a source of global terrorism, inspiring the ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and for causing disunity in Muslim communities by labeling Muslims who disagreed with the Wahhabi definition of monotheism as apostates (takfir) and justifying their killing. It has also been criticized for the destruction of historic shrines of saints, mausoleums, and other Muslim and non-Muslim buildings and artifacts.
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