(September 22, 2023 at 6:30 am)Leonardo17 Wrote: To me “idolatry” means over-identification with any aspect of the physical world. So if you are over identifying with some rules that were set by religion without understanding the meaning and aim of these rules when they were first issued, you are very definitely into idolatry.
Yes, I think this definition makes sense. And I think that even if we don't have the same religious beliefs as the writers of the Koran or the Old Testament, over-identification with mistaken things is a real worry.
Probably you're familiar with the more modern concept of a fetish. People can have commodity fetishes, sexual fetishes, or religious fetishes, but they function pretty much as an old-fashioned idol.
So for example maybe a person wants to be intelligent and sophisticated, but it's hard to actually have those qualities in oneself. So that person buys a watch or a car or something which makes him look as if he has those qualities. He has displaced something real and valuable onto a symbol, and made himself satisfied with that. Or you might want to be young and carefree, so you buy the brand which advertises itself this way, though you're still a slave to commodities.
Likewise with sexual fetishes, the original idea was that normal men want sex with women, but real women are scary, so the sexual desire is displaced onto shoes or something less threatening.
In every case, a person wants a good thing but replaces it with a fake, because the fake is easier.
I've heard some Christians speak of bibliolatry, in which literal-minded Christians worship the Bible itself and neglect the real meaning of the religion. They are so worked up over their commitment to the text that they forget to be good people.
So I suspect that some Muslims might be guilty of something similar -- freaking out over symbols and neglecting actual goodness.
