Religion and idolatry

[Baqal]

As the Torah states:
Exodus 20:2-5
2 I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
3 Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
4 thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me;
5 and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments.

If we open the Bible and read Exodus 20:3-6 we will see that it says pretty much the same stuff, except:
6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep My commandments.
This replaces the fifth verse of the Torah, and switches the word "mercy" for "love".

The Quran, much like the previous holy books, calls idolatry a sin and addresses that no Muslim is to have any gods before Allah.
The Women - سورة النساء
[4:48] Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. And he who associates others with Allah has certainly fabricated a tremendous sin.

The Jinn - سورة الجن
[72:18] And He revealed that the masjids are for Allah , so do not invoke with Allah anyone.

The Quran also addresses that a belief in any other god other than Allah is a deception associated with Satan.
The Women - سورة النساء
[4:117] They call upon instead of Him none but female deities, and they call upon none but a rebellious Satan.

It may be clear that Yehowah and God by the Bible are the same entities, because they seem to state the same commandment. However, I don't see any reason for Yehowah to be jealous of any other deity. Doesn't he state that He is the only one, true god? Why is He worried about competition, then?
A Christian once said this in the YouTube comment section:
"Jesus is the only true Lord, as stated by the Bible, so worshiping anything else is idolatry."
Are you seeing how this sentence can be troubling for Christians that don't believe in the Trinity? From their perspective, worshiping Jesus is considered idolatry.
I can go and give you examples until the ostriches start to fly, but at the end, we will come to the following conclusion:
"Christianity can easily dismiss Hinduism as idolatry. Hinduism can dismiss Christianity as idolatry. Islam can dismiss both of them as idolatry, and so on."
What do you think personally? Do you think believers should be more careful when they attempt to dismiss another belief for being nothing but pure idolatry?

[The Grand Nudger]

It's a conflict that arises because the authors idea of "the one true god" is a statement entirely set within it's own time. As originally conceived - god was the greatest god - the only "real god" - the authors weren't implying that there weren't other gods - that was just the norm for the times. The tides have shifted, and some of the faithful choose to conceptualize the "spiritual landscape" and the text in a dissimilar manner today. Unsurprising. Do I think people should be careful about how they conceptualize their faith? I think it's a non-starter. If people were careful......then I'd be willing to bet that "with their faith" would be an incomprehensible question.

"With my what?" -blank stare

[vorlon13]

Catholics pray to saints, and it gives a major headache to most protestants when they do it.

[Angrboda]

Idolatry is widely practiced in the religions mentioned, yet because idolatry is considered "bad," these practices aren't thought of as idolatry.

I guess the obvious question is, "What is idolatry?" I'd suggest that idolatry is the ritual practice of using an analog or symbol of a thing to invoke the power of a thing.

I'm not sufficiently familiar with Islam, but it would appear this practice is common in Christianity, e.g. "the cross".

[vorlon13]

IIRC, the catholic rationale was that in the days before widespread literacy (reading and writing, not Literalism) all the religious art and sculpture pomp would get across the idea of salvation and church beliefs. Now that reading and writing are widespread, the practice is entrenched, traditional and ritualistic, even if theologically hinky, and unnecessary to boot.

I've just realize, having a saint for everything is another approach to cafeteriaism, and we all know what I think of that!

[Welsh cake]

What do you think personally?

I think its a load of bullshit personally.

If believers want to have their beliefs, then please reframe from dragging it into the public domain where its not welcome, like school, state and institution.

Keep your mental masturbation where it belongs. In the private place. Along with your physical masturbation.

[professor]

Baqal, I think there is only one creator God, therefore all entities or substitutes for that God are false and detrimental to our well being (the big reason for the rule against it).
The substitution goes back a long way.
The commandment to not make images or bow down to them was removed from the Catholic bible (and the command to not covet was split in half to cover the omission).

Besides Catholics, there are many idols people bow down to.
Hinduism is packed with them.
The pope calls himself the"Vicar" of Christ, the word means "Replacement", therefore he, himself could be considered an idol.

[Baqal]

@professor
-Baqal, I think there is only one creator God, therefore all entities or substitutes for that God are false and detrimental to our well being (the big reason for the rule against it).
How do you determine which creator god is the true one?

-Besides Catholics, there are many idols people bow down to. Hinduism is packed with them.
Yes, but praying to statues of gods is something perfectly normal in their culture. They are not worshiping the statues, they are worshiping their gods through the statues.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Idolatry is widely practiced in the religions mentioned, yet because idolatry is considered "bad," these practices aren't thought of as idolatry.

I guess the obvious question is, "What is idolatry?" I'd suggest that idolatry is the ritual practice of using an analog or symbol of a thing to invoke the power of a thing.

I'm not sufficiently familiar with Islam, but it would appear this practice is common in Christianity, e.g. "the cross".

ISIS, the muslim terrorist group in Iraq, supposedly aims to destroy the Kaaba in Mecca because the muslims worship a stone.

[professor]

Baqal,
There is one sure way to find out which of the myriad religions and philosophies is true-
Humbly ask the God of Heaven - "Who are you?, show me the way".