A sign that someone is an idolator

submitted by trident765 from (self.nonmorons)

Imagine that you are in a religious gathering, and a member of your religion starts advocating things that are contrary to your religion's teachings. The key to finding out if this person is an idolator is by observing his reaction when you inform him that your religion explicitly condemns what he is advocating. A true believer would ask to see the quote, so that he can decide whether to accept or refute what you are saying. But an idolator won't because he doesn't care. The idolator will just start talking away and logically justifying why the things he is advocating are good, without tieing his arguments to the religious texts.

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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Idolatry is the worship of graven images.

[–]covac 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Idolatry is the worship of graven images.

It's also at the root of homosexuality, as the Bible states (Romans 1)

[–]fschmidt 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

To understand idolatry, one has to understand the gods of the ancient world. There were many types of gods, many of which were abstract gods representing aspects of nature. The Greek gods, for example. But the Old Testament singles out idols for a reason. The point here is that the worst thing that people can do is to worship their own creation. Idols were simply the means of expressing an idea in a way to be worshipped. Today we have memes and many other ways of expressing ideas to worship. But the core idea is to worship something that is man-made, and that includes worshipping ideas that are purely man-made, meaning ideas that are not based on an external source of information.

[–]trident765[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Idolatry is also sometimes used to mean putting too much faith in an idea. This is how Francis Bacon uses the term in Novum Organum:

Lastly, there are idols which have crept into men’s minds from the various dogmas of peculiar systems of philosophy, and also from the perverted rules of demonstration, and these we denominate idols of the theatre: for we regard all the systems of philosophy hitherto received or imagined, as so many plays brought out and performed, creating fictitious and theatrical worlds.

--Francis Bacon, Novum Organum

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45988/45988-h/45988-h.htm

An idolator doesn't care about the religious text of his religion because secretly he has his own dogmas that he follows, that are separate from the religious text.

[–]Vng418 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I identify with the definition of idols serving as a means to detach oneself from what is important and keep you preoccupied with ideas, patterns and views affecting your behavior and decision-making leading inevitably to the cycle of malignant, (self)destructive consequences. There are obviously many layers of idolatry depending on how you view the phenomena, and I think it's a very interpretation-friendly subject that might work well in many seemingly unrelated contexts (psychology, politics, etc.). I finished a book called Counterfeit Gods from Timothy Keller about 1.5 month ago, and I find it very informative from the perspective of someone who doesn't read books regularly and doesn't have a thorough knowledge of the Bible (or just OT).

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Interesting, do you suppose that's because the seemingly more fitting term heresy was already heavily abused by 1620?

[–]trident765[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Heresy means to oppose the beliefs held by the religion. Idolatry is to have deeply held beliefs that are foreign to your religion. Idolatry leads to heresy, because different belief systems are bound to conflict. And in Abrahamic faiths, idolatry is in itself heresy. But idolatry and heresy are different concepts, even though in Abrahamic religions it is hard to imagine one without the other.