Greetings @slowwalker,
When I started reading your post, I was wondering about the significance of the name Buddha Mireuk (Maitreya). It should not surprise you that Christians expect the return of Christ and Jews the appearance of the messiah. It seems as if these religions will point to the same person who has to come to solve the problems of humanity.
The truth is that art represents such beliefs giving it a visible expression of its god or gods. Something of importance must have.
In particular, I believe in a God invisible to the human eye and impossible to represent. How can the finite conceive the infinite and eternal? We can only intuit it if the same divinity allows it. The rest are fables that man has invented from his remote past.
Thank you for sharing your posts, they are quite interesting.
Each religion has a messiah. People in each culture have found a savior to save them from suffering.
As you mentioned, God is invisible. I guess that people made visible statue to rely more on God. Thank you for your comment! Have a nice day :)