I remember as a teenager, having pictures of multiple celebrities hanging in my room. This is considered normal in American culture, and only in recent years did I discover how damaging it was, and how in America, we worship celebrities more than anywhere else.
You don't need to adopt a formal religion to understand and respect the effects of idolatry, just as you don't need to in order to understand the detriment of greed, sloth or gluttony, but for some reason, the sin of all sins is the least understood, and thus, wreaking havoc on us.
In order to understand idolatry, one must understand where the idea came from. Its earliest lessons were in Hebrew, in the Torah, also known as the Old Testament. So we may deduce that the best person to ask about idolatry would be a Rabbi.
The reason we go to Jews for this knowledge is because they have the purest understanding of the Old Testament. For them, it wasn't translated time after time, altered especially for the convenience of the Kings who themselves wished to be idolized.
Whats most tragic to me is how even in the Bible, it admits many times the ills of idolatry, yet, modern Christians do it almost more than anyone. Idolatry, at its core, is the worship of graven images. And to create images of god especially, and in the form of man, is the most epic of the sin. I mean, if your holy book was written by Hebrews, maybe you want to understand it as it writers did.
So what is the point? How is idolatry bad for us?
It opens us up to being owned and enslaved by mortal men.
Can you name who owns and governs Israel?
Because from the looks of it, they are as sovereign as any culture can be, and it seems they even have the entire new West world in their control. This is the kind of result one gets when they do not worship mortal men or images of gods.
So how do we personally apply this to our lives?
First understand that this is a highly scientific way of respecting and understanding the concept of god. It is to understand like the Jews, that one cannot picture the grand architect, that his essence is virtually unexplainable, and even his/her/its name is unsayable.
Eventually, the teachings were translated and idols were introduced, and the next thing you know there are literal demons, a god in man form, a devil who was an angel, and all of these images we have today. This is also the reason Atheists have a field day with destroying modern religion, because we have created a fairy tale out of what was a very scientific and reasonable way of understanding life and death.
There was no character named Satan. Satan was a quality of being, a state of being, adversity. Jews don't believe in a literal devil. There is no literal Heaven or Hell. But we have for centuries graven deity images from the many teachings that were allegorical, which has opened us up to problems.
Once you create an image of something divine and otherwise unimaginable, you captivate the minds of those whom you place the image. But since that image is man made, not divine, it can be re-molded, related, likened an infinite amount of times. People will then adopt the shortcut fashion, the idol, the false image, over the mystery and awe that stimulates imagination, inner sight and gnowing.
Think of the planets and stars in the sky. These were considered to be our first gods. Idolatry in this respect would be what Hollywood has done by actually referring to actors as stars. We now have mortal creations of deities. Where we once worshiped what was fixed in the cosmos, untouched by man, purely of the divine, we have associated now with people, who are not fixed but instead always changing, mad made, man programmed.
We are now programmable through these idols.
Idolizing others fills the mind with "better people", who too often don't even exist, especially in celebrity idolizing. They are personas. They are actors. Why make room in your precious emotional pool for them? Why let these creations take up your imagination? Why create goals based on them, when it is all bullshit? It keeps you focused on the unreal and unattainable, ignorant of the true essence in which they try to represent. It drains you of precious passion.
Celebrity culture is the ultimate tragic misdirect.
Why do you think that we see the worst in Hollywood and celebrity culture? The name itself is an attempt to fashion what is otherwise holy, the new religion. It is an attempt at new gods, and has the power of religion over minds and souls. But why is Satanism so prevalent in it? Why are sexual deviants and predators all over it? Why is ego and narcissism the norm? Why is fashion its king? Why is it overwhelmingly supportive of the party that wants to enslave us with more government rule; bondage?
Its because they are parasites. They need our energy, our money, time, and attention. They deceive us. And while we cant escape them, because they are so alluring and entertaining, we need to understand that they have hit critical mass with their bullshit. We can now see it, and can now begin to slowly put them in their places, which is less in our minds. We can get back to they mystery and awe, where god, the divine, truly is.
Idolatry kills the imagination, our inner divinity, the ability to source from the inner most. Not idolizing keeps the mind open to infinite possibilities, keeps us curious and in wonder and awe. But when we attach to broadly worshipped icons, images, we open ourselves up to imitations; both receiving and giving them. The world becomes full of people who look like, but are not. It creates devious traps. It is the epitome of fashion, the look, without the substance.
They are not the real thing. We are. They are merely high fashion voids of soul, which is why they require so many of ours.
With love,
Doc
Hey Doc, it kind of begs the question of what happens when one gets a few things right and many things wrong? I couldn't agree with you and the jews more on this issue and as a musician, I intuited it quite young and purposely kept a distance from the entertainment industry for this very reason; and no, I didn't buy the B.S. entertainment of Vineyard churches, either...
I could make a very long list of what is not historically factual in that book nor scientifically sound but I'll assume you are aware of these contradictions.
The Taoist's were also aware of this issue so it's not like the Jews were the only ones grokking this phenomenon.
Jewish supremacy in modernity is rooted in control of the money supply and need not be accounted for by mysticism, although the JQ is a fascinating topic if thought out clearly without guile.
Very insightful but is judaism not a religion? Where is the line? Anyways any dogmatic faith or belief, even materialism, arguably has rituals and idolization of a deity , the self, the planet, etc. --- I am agnostic and absurdist so I like to discuss and keep the discussion open. We are constantly learning more about ourselves and the reality we create around us . I do, however, agree with the understanding that idolization serves no beneficial purpose to people other than the idols and the ones who cash in off them.
Awesome blog and I love the art work used in this.
more of that! very good post :)
Love your work Doc. Highly rEsteemed!
resteemed
@lovecuration
<3
Awesome post
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God is very real. The big bang theory is acknowledging Gods work but not giving him credit
yes it takes us out of unity and into seperation that we are better or less worthy than others
Just say no to idolatry!