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What is wrong with those people who to pray to statues?

Kelly of the Phoenix

Well-Known Member
God: No images. Images suck.
God: Make a bronze snake with magic powers.
God: Make a pretty gold box with winged figures on it.
God: Make a temple with LOTS of images and/or statues.
People: Do You have dementia or is it just Your habit to command things You specifically said not to do, like murdering, stealing, coveting (can't take Canaan since it belongs to others and coveting is a sin ... whoops) ...?
 

sovietchild

Well-Known Member
You've been given answers. It appears that you do not like them.

Besides, I can't recall you ever answering my questions either. Tit for tat.

I did not understand your question. To me it sounded like you have never seen people pray to statues or something.

Google.com>Images>people praying to statues
 

RabbiO

הרב יונה בן זכריה
There's nothing wrong with me. When I use icons or images in my worship of God or in my honoring of the Saints, I'm certainly not worshiping or honoring myself. Those images are profound windows into Heaven.

89 posts in and the OP still doesn't get it. When the number of posts reaches 100 might I suggest that all who have tried to respond head for the door and do something productive, you know, like growing mold and mildew in the shower stall? I was going to suggest having a cup of hot tea and a prune danish, but sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures!
 

sovietchild

Well-Known Member
There's nothing wrong with me. When I use icons or images in my worship of God or in my honoring of the Saints, I'm certainly not worshiping or honoring myself. Those images are profound windows into Heaven.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07664a.htm

According to you, images are you guidance.?! According to Prophet Ibrahim they can't harm you, help you or guide you.

89 posts in and the OP still doesn't get it.

So according to you there is nothing wrong with those people who express thanks to images? I always thought that Jews express thanks only to God.
 
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Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
According to you, images are you guidance.?! According to Prophet Ibrahim they can't harm you, help you or guide you.
They have helped me and inspired me. Don't you have pictures of your loved ones? It's the same with the use of images in Christianity. They are our Heavenly family, and images of them are holy, being suffused with the grace of God which touches our souls.

You're a Muslim and we know Islam is against images in worship, but you don't need to be rude to those who disagree. It's not helping your cause at all.
 

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
According to Prophet Ibrahim they can't harm you, help you or guide you.

Yeah but (in Russia, btw, that will get one's mouth washed out with soap)... to many of us Ibrahim is irrelevant. My God says "For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied". In other words, people being people, need to see a representation of God to focus on. He actually encourages images. Too many people can't follow their God because they have no conception of him, and can't relate.
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
I did not understand your question. To me it sounded like you have never seen people pray to statues or something.

Because I haven't ever seen people pray to statues. What I have seen is outsiders with an agenda misinterpreting religious rituals of others. This is really quite odd, considering symbolism is widespread in the world's religions, including the ones that fancy accusing others of this "idolatry" thing. You'd think they'd comprehend that the people are not "praying to statues" as in "oh, great and mighty statue, please listen to my prayers." They're praying to their gods, who are represented by various symbols, including but not limited to statuary. But it is, perhaps, not so odd when we consider the notion of "idolatry" was a political tool. After all, how else are you supposed to convince someone to buy what you're selling? Why, you convince them that what they're doing now is wrong and what you are doing is better, with abundant use of misrepresentation ranging from strawpersons to outright slander.
Depressing thing is that it not only worked, but that there are
still people who parrot this as if it isn't a load of ethnocentric garbage.
 

sovietchild

Well-Known Member
Lets think out of the box for a second. If you see a person who is expressing thanks to something that can not respond to you or hear you, then there is has to be something wrong with him. If you study abnormal psychology, one of the first things you will learn is that its hard to cure some people with mental disorders, because they think that there is nothing wrong with them. Paranoia and Narcissism for example; they both would always blame you for their mistakes in order to feel better about themselves.
 
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Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
The real question is 'What is wrong with people who can't accept that other people may just have a different point of view, based on their different experiences? What is wrong with people who are so narrow-minded that they feel their way is the only way, and that that way should be the same for all other people on this diverse planet? It seems so simple, to me and to many others.

Isn't it time people figure that out? Or am I too optimistic?
 

atanu

Member
Premium Member
God Almighty is above the heavens, above His creation.

So, do you know where that 'above' is? Or is this 'above' an imagination in your mind?

You have not answered my question. What is wrong with those people who express thanks to an image?

When we keep a photo of a loved one, the loved one is actually in our heart and mind.

Similarly, with most of us, when God is in our heart and mind, we lovingly take Him out symbolically and give Him love.

We also believe and know that God is your very heart and mind too, in form of your very life and awareness. But you don't know that. When you understand that you will begin to love All.
 
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The Emperor of Mankind

Currently the galaxy's spookiest paraplegic
I did not understand your question. To me it sounded like you have never seen people pray to statues or something.

Google.com>Images>people praying to statues

Lets think out of the box for a second. If you see a person who is expressing thanks to something that can not respond to you or hear you, then there is has to be something wrong with him.

Right. Like how Muslims worship a big black cube.
 
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