Much of the debate between Catholicism and Protestantism centers on the worship of images, since the Bible states that doing so is a serious sin. However, aren’t images simply a way to connect with God more easily? I come from a Catholic country and am used to seeing people with photos of the Virgin Mary, with images of saints, and churches are decorated with beautiful statues—clearly a remnant of our Greco-Roman past. The argument in defense of this is that the images themselves are not worshipped, but are used as a means to pray to God.Is it possible that the ancient Greeks and Romans did the same? That is, did they not believe that the images had supernatural power and pray in a manner similar to Catholics?
>>18466349The Jews in the Second Temple period never had an issue with 2D images. What is forbidden in the Torah are peselim, carved images, so this means statue, bas reliefs, etc. The two qualifiers that add to it are temunah, form, and semel, resemblance. Unironically Muslims are idolaters because they worship a matzevah and Eastern Orthodox Christians, at least in their praxis, are not.
>>18466349You don't know better than God, trust him instead of your church, culture and tradition. There's a reason God asks you to come out of the world and not participate in their traditions. They're all pagan and ungodly.
>>18466349The body of Christ, the one true living God can not be depicted as the image of a person, so such idolatry is self evident blasphemy
>>18466349>Is it possible that the ancient Greeks and Romans did the same? That is, did they not believe that the images had supernatural power and pray in a manner similar to Catholics?Yes, nobody but peasants ever actually believed that the statue was literally the god itself but rather, a “conduit” of sorts to access the god. After carving the statue, they would do a complex ritual that they believed would transfer the gods essence into the statue; the god was still believed to reside in the heavens but their essence was now present in the statue and allowed them to access the deity.Also, they believed that if the statue was stolen, damaged, or destroyed, it meant they had done something to anger the deity.
>>18466349>Is it possible that the ancient Greeks and Romans did the same?Good job anon, you discovered that idolatry is just a fighting word used to delegitimise other or opposing religious beliefs.This is why most idolatry discussion are absolutely retarded and theoretically speaking practically any religion is constantly commiting idolatry.Having a cross hanging in your house is idolatry. Praying towards the Kaaba is idolatry. Having Hindu statues is obviously idolatry. And so on From an anthropologist perspective, the reason for this is that humans need a materialist connection to their beliefs, and the stronger the materialist connection, the easier it is usually to establish those beliefs.
