Idolatry, generally regarded as the worship of graven images, or the confusion of symbols with that which they are to symbolize, is an issue in more than one belief tradition.
Listening to a recording of an old Alan Watts lecture this afternoon, I was introduced to a brand of idolatry which I had never before considered.
The example Watts uses is that of a sun painted on a window. Wouldn't you scrape the paint off if it obscured your view of the real sun - if it obscured the light of the sun?
How much more insidious are our ideas about God? Golden calves can be melted down. Wooden crosses fall apart. Forgive the blasphemy, but even the Quran or the Guru Nanak Singh are impermanent, and even by the admission of their readers - less than God. What is more difficult to divest oneself of is an idea.
An idea about God, about right or wrong, about eternity and impermanence.
To define something is to limit it, by definition.
To define is to stop.
To kill.
We are much better off, I think, letting God be God, whatever that entails. We can concentrate on being ourselves. The world's religions don't forbid idolatry because its badwrong. Idolatry is discouraged because it misleads.
The more we try to cling to the transcendent, the further it slips away.
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