A sign that someone is an idolator

submitted by trident765 from (self.nonmorons)

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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Idolatry is the worship of graven images.

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

[–][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.